Misty vortex
by Zyma-nee-22
Summary: Reincarnation is the theory of rebirth, your not supposed to have your old memories as well! Kasumi, a girl who was reborn from our world, to the Naruto world is given a second chance as the sister of Uzumaki Kushina. With Chakra, Ninja's, and other eccentric people, Kasumi's in for a wold ride. Story is better then summary. Rating may change.
1. Uzumaki Kasumi

**Um.. Hello? For those of you reading this, I am not Zyma. I'm in a relationship with her, and we are sharing an account, so this is my story, not hers. I hope all of you will understand this, but for those of you who most likely skipped this, it's not my problem. My name is Cindy and this it my story, ok?**

**Anyway, please review at the end of the chapter. Feedback is important.**

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_**Disclaimer: I do not own, nor do I claim to own, Naruto or any of its characters. Any and all cannon events belong to the creator. Please support the official releases.**_

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_This chapter has been revised._

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General POV: unknown location-wasteland.

A loud clang of what could only be metal was heard, which was followed by a voice yelling "Uzumaki Hijutsu: Uzumaki Hakai(1)!"

The result of whatever was used was a loud explosion that overtook a large portion of the battlefield in a vortex like way, with the user being a taller redheaded woman, her hair slightly tinted black as it went down, but it was obvious that it was dyed the darker of the two colors. She had a standard flak jacket on that one would expect of a Shinobi, and a pair of black pants that went to her ankles.

In front of her, completely unharmed, was a man in a cloak with red clouds, an orange spiral like mask on his face with a single eye staring out towards her with almost a hint of malice in his gaze.

"Why do you try?" The masked figure asked with an almost bland tone "You know that such a technique will not harm me."

The red headed woman glared towards the masked man as she said "I won't let you take my family away from me. She may treat me as a mother just like my actual children, but you will not take my niece away from me."

The masked man gave a sigh as he said "You wish to stop something that will come to be even if you are defiant."

"No." The redhead stated defiantly "Even if you kill me, that will just anger her which will lead to you're defeat. You have no hope of winning this."

The masked man gave indication of hearing her as he looked to the side slightly, to which the red head sent a blast of water towards him in a large current that could give the Nidaime hokage a run for his money. The next instance, however, the red headed woman coughed out some blood as a sword pierced her through the center of her chest. It wasn't anything that couldn't be healed, but with how far away any comrade was, she knew she would die.

Giving an almost bloody grin to the masked man, she whispered "You've sealed your fate." before she tumbled forward, her fall being in almost slow motion as another voice yelled towards them.

"Okaa-san!"

The next thing the red head knew, she was seeing black her thoughts going towards what she had been through before.

Unknown location 37 years ago

Life is short, that is something that one Julie Richmond understood right away. The first reason she knew this was because, well, she didn't have that good of a life but she knew it could have been much worse. All things considered though, there wasn't much worse than abusive parents that thought that you needed to do everything a certain way or else you would go to hell for it. A simple thing as helping someone when you should be focusing on the word of the holy being that created the world for instance.

She wasn't one to complain about her life, but that was a bit ridiculous even to her.

Religion was the biggest motivator for her parents, and she knew that if that wasn't in the picture, than they would have found something else to bug her about even if it didn't matter to anyone else. Like her doing everything around the house for her parents. They had two healthy legs and feet on them, yet they forced her to do things like cooking, cleaning and other tasks such as that. In honesty, Julie would actually thank them for this as she gained mandatory skills at an early age that most people didn't get until they were long gone from anything their parents had influence over.

Julie, on the other hand, considered everything to be a motivator to being a strong individual in the future. Sure she wasn't going to do the same thing to any kid she had in the future, but she knew for a fact that she would make sure they had life skills earlier than most kids did. Maybe not as early as she gained them, but early none the less.

To be completely honest with anyone that asked, Julie would say that she had lived a full life and accomplished many things that she wanted to do before she graduated high school even. For example, she was already recognized by hundreds, if not thousands, of people for being good at stringing words together to form a story of a sorts. Sure, they were just fan made versions of an already written story, but even then a lot of people actually liked her stories, though she had to finish a few off early as to make sure that she could focus on other things she needed to do.

Julie had done things to manage to get into a good college, and thankfully not a religious one that her parents tried to force her into, but it was all taken away from her in an instant due to a drunk driver. To be honest, she didn't even blame the guy for her death. Due to her upbringing she never really cared all that much about anything, and instead went with the flow, even if she didn't like it. She wanted to change, really she did, but after so many years of the same thing, it would be hard for anyone to do.

Even so Julie barely gave any reaction when a cartoonish voice spoke out in a cheerful tone saying "Hello! How Ya doin?"

The dead girl didn't know how long she had just sat and stared at the darkness in front of her, but when the voice spoke, she reacted right away by giving the figure a blank stare and saying "I'm dead, what do you think?"

The figure stopped for a second as he looked towards the girl in front of him. He expected something from her, but not that. He even expected something along the lines of denial, but when he looked through the girls memories to judge her, he gave a sigh almost, before touching her forehead, which in turn caused her to freeze due to the large finger stopping her.

After a few seconds the Julie blinked before she glared at the skull masked figure "What was that for?"

She blinked a few times in shock, but before she could say anything else, the figure in front of her said "I unlocked all you're emotional inhibitors. Ya kinda put them in place while you were still alive on accident, though they were about to break due to you wanting to change."

Julie's normally uncaring look was completely different as she looked down in what looked almost like shock "Emotional inhibitors...? Was I really that detached about my life?"

The masked figure patted the girl on her back softly as he said "You're life was just that bad, it makes sense that you would try and detach yourself from that pain. Its alright to cry you know. It is not a weakness."

Julie shook her head slightly as she said "It's fine. I don't want to be overwhelmed by thinking back on it. It will only make things worse for me in the end.

The figure gave a small nod as he said "I understand, but let me introduce myself to you. I'm Shinigami, or in english death. Its nice ta meet cha."

Julie blinked a bit at the behavior of the manifestation of death, before she burst out laughing. Death stayed silent for a bit as he knew that there could be multiple reasons that she was laughing, so he didn't want to jump to conclusions. As for Julie, she gave a happy smile, the only one that death could ever remember involving her life as he did go through her memories, and all.

With the amused look still on her face, Julie said "I'm sorry about that Shinigami-san, but when I see you, death isn't the first thing that comes to mind."

Death gave a nod, with most of his body bending in the process, as he said "I understand, but I look like this becuase, well, if I looked scary, people wouldn't exactly want to talk to me would they?"

Julie, gave a happy smile and a nod towards the figure in front of her "I understand. If I didn't see that car coming at me before I blacked out I wouldn't have believed you since I would think I wasn't dead, but since I know i'm dead, I understand. Its nice to actually meet someone who cares though."

[Play {} Bastille: Oblivion]

Death, if possible for someone with a mask, gave her a sad look as he said "I'm sorry for how you're life played out Julie, For that reason, I would actually like to give you another chance in a new world if you're willing."

Julie's happy expression softened as she said "I would love that, but can you actually do that without getting in trouble? I mean even you must have a boss."

"Yes, in fact, I do have a boss, but he lets me do things the way I see fit so long as it doesn't do anything drastic in the long run." Death stated with a cheerful tone.

Julie's smile left her face, but still had the same soft quality to it as she spoke in a soft tone "I don't know if id be able to handle much more than what i've been through, but if you believe I deserve it, then I wont deny you Shinigami-san."

Death gave a smile towards her once again, if possible, and said "Id give you back your memories, slowly of course in the course of dreams, but you will grow up without them so you can be given a different personality instead of what you had in your previous life."

Juile gave a nod towards death, before her eyes started to feel wet. Moving a hand to her eyes she looked extremely shocked as her hand came back wet "I'm Crying? Why would I be crying? I haven't cried since I was a child."

Death put a large hand on her back once again as he said "It's because you're happy. I might not be all that great at reading emotions, but even I can tell that you are crying because you're happy."

Julie gave a nod as she furiously wiped the tears away from her eyes in a futile attempt. Eventually Death decided to knock her out so that he could send her onto her new life, as he carefully forced a type of energy into her body to knock her out without hurting her. Once she was knocked out, he gave a small slime towards her as he said "I hope you have a happy life as Uzumaki Kasumi.

[Music end]

When Julie woke up she could only see darkness, as she wriggled around a bit, but eventually she felt like she was being pushed somewhere, to which she struggled a bit due to the warm feeling she was getting from where she was. Eventually she was forced out of her warm place to which she gasped at the cold air hitting her, but even then she didn't cry like some of the people were expecting, as a voice said "Sono on'nanoko!(2)"

She felt like she was wriggling around a bit still, as she felt someone holding her, but even then she didn't cry out. Blinking her eyes as fast as she could she stared at a redheaded woman who was holding her, with a smile on her face "Ah, kanojo wa me o akemashita. Dono yō ni chīsana ichidesu ka?(3)"

Julie let out a noise of discomfort as well as what looked almost like a glare on her face. This caused a male voice to say " Kanojo wa sekkyoku-tekina nodesu! Kanojo wa machigainaku uzumaki-mei no kachigāru(4)!"

Julie didn't understand what they were saying, but even so she recognized that they were speaking Japanese. Looking towards the man who spoke, and seeing his red hair as well, she connected the dots to them being her new parents, even if she couldn't remember her old parents. Looking back towards her new mother as she spoke she heard her say " Kanojo wa kekkyoku anata no musumedesu. Watashitachi no chīsana kasumi."

Kasumi... That sounded like a name. Julie gave a small giggle in response to that, to which her father chuckled and said "Hai. Uzumaki Kasumi."

The newly named Kasumi gave a toothless grin towards her parents, before she was handed over to what looked like a two year old with red hair and violet eyes, in a short green sundress. Kasumi stared at the person who was obviously her older sister, as her mother said " Shinchō Kushina koto. Anata ga kanojo o doroppu shitakunai, anata wa imasu ka?(6)"

Kasumi looked towards her big sister a slightly subdued violet gaze, similar to Kushina's own in color, but dark, and she gave a toothless grin while she reached towards her sister's longer red hair, to which the older girl gave a tone of discomfort and she tried to keep Kasumi from grabbing her hair.

This was just the start for the new beginning for the Uzumaki family.

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**So, what did you guys think of this? I Think that this went a lot better in terms of how well it was compared to last time, so let me know, ok? I hope this was better, so let me know if it was, and i'll be working on the next chapter ASAP.**

**Ok, for those of you curious, Kasumi's name, with the addition of the Uzumaki name, would literally translate to Misty vortex. I might be wrong, but Uzumaki tends to mean either whirlpool, or vortex, and Kasumi is supposed to mean mist(y)**

**(1): Uzumaki Hijutsu: Uzumaki Hakai= Uzumaki hidden jutsu: Vortex destruction**

**(2): Sono on'nanoko!= Its a girl!**

**(3): Ah, kanojo wa me o akemashita. Dono yō ni chīsana ichidesu ka?: Ah she opened her eyes. How are you little one?**

**(4):Kanojo wa sekkyoku-tekina nodesu! Kanojo wa machigainaku uzumaki-mei no kachigāru! = She is feisty! She is definitely worthy of the Uzumaki name!"**

**(5): Kanojo wa kekkyoku anata no musumedesu. Watashitachi no chīsana kasumi = She's your daughter after all. Our little mist.**

**(6): Shinchō Kushina koto. Anata ga kanojo o doroppu shitakunai, anata wa imasu ka?: Be careful Kushina. You don't want to drop her, do you?"**


	2. A family matter

**I'm back with the next chapter!**

**Now, I understand that those of you who actually read this before this chapter came out (new stories being hard to get views on and all) but trust me, I'm not going to do some stupid time skip from one year, to adulthood. I've seen stories like that, and honestly? It's stupid. You miss a ton of character development when you skip that much time, and I have to say, what Zyma, the owner of this account, did was kind of stupid with the time skips. I mean, what happened during those times?**

**Whatever the case, I'm not doing that, so you will see what things are like for Kasumi as she grows up as well. On that note, let me do a review response, as I've got a grand total of (1) review!**

**Aren117: I have a beta reader at this point, and it's my, um... Girlfriend. She technically owns this account, even if we are sharing it now, but she reads these! She can't really do that at the moment as she's still in the hospital, but she does beta it. Ok, as for that, it's not a self input, and it is a mixed point of view. I've already have chapter three laid out, not finished however, and it is in a 3rd person point of view. I understand about the reviews thing though. I hope you like it, and considering this was a 'reincarnation' fic, I thought I'd make a reference to death just because I could. I will give support though, and I honestly love OC Fanfics, as they are really, really, interesting if they are good.**

**There you go, I hope you like this chapter as well though, so please review!**

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Kasumi, to be honest, was a quiet child. Like most Uzumaki she was full of energy, and it was through the snit bits of what she could grasp that the family used an energy called chakra to protect each other. Her sister, kushina, had started to train with chakra, but it became obvious from the get go that the older child would be a physical fighter more than a mental one. When Kushina had friends over, Kasumi, despite being so quiet, was watching with eyes that showed she was smarter than most children that were only 4 or 5 months old.

The smaller Uzumaki managed to started to walk on wobbly feet for a minute at most before falling by the time she turned 4 months old, and with her intelligent looks towards everything with wonder. This also resulted in the younger Uzumaki to copy her sister when she started to do Kata's of some form of fighting style. Her movements were sloppy, and wobbly, but the fact that she was able to even attempt the Kata's her older sister was performing was something.

Eventually the parents of said Uzumaki decided to try and teach her to talk, and surprisingly the first word that the smaller girl had said wasn't Kaasan or Otosan, but Neechan, when Kushina had started to play with her little sister. The older sister, in response had given the smaller sister a grin before playing with her with more energy if possible. That was until Kasumi had pushed Kushina over, to which the two ended up in a tumble of red hair and limbs as they wrestled with each other.

Another thing that the smaller girl had noticed, however, was when the whole clan, which was a lot of red headed kids and parents, even grandparents, eating together. It wasn't common for the whole clan to eat together, but when Kasumi saw that her parents, along with her and her sister were at the head of the table, she found out that her parents were the head of whatever clan or group her family was a part of.

Kasumi was munching on a piece of fruit she was given, a plum as it turned out, as a voice next to her mother spoke "Aww, kanojo wa totemo kawaīdesu! Kanojo no namae wa nanidesu ka(1)?"

Turning up towards the woman Kasumi gave a sort of attention grabbing sound as she tried to speak, but she couldn't seem to form the words she wanted just yet, but then again she was just 6 months old.

Her mother just gave a melodic laugh as she responded "Kanojo no namae wa kasumi desu. Kushina wa kanojo ni anedearu aishi, soshite sore ni tsuite manzoku shite Imu.(2)"

The other woman just gave a small hum of acknowledgment as she said "Ossharutōri. Ōku no kyōdai ni shite mo watashitachi no kazoku ni, tatakaimasu."

After that, Kasumi tuned out the conversation as she stated at two older Uzumaki, both with bits of white in their red hair, playing a board game with each other.

The small Uzumaki wriggled out of her mother's grip as fast as she could, before she walked, something she managed to do a week ago, and she walked over to the two old men as they started another match up, both noticing the small Uzumaki sitting beside them, but being more intent on the game in front of them.

Kasumi's big Violet eyes wandered over the board quickly as she watched the game, every once in awhile she would actually make a noise of discomfort when the man on her right tried to do something that she, after watching two games, knew would cause the man on the right to lose an important piece in the process.

Three moves later, and the man on the right won his first game of the day. The man on the left stared in shock before looking towards the small 6 month old that gave a laugh and was clapping her hands like a normal kid her age would. The two elder men just shook their head before Kasumi's mother walked over and picked her up, an amused look on her face.

Before she could leave though, the man who lost said "Kunia-sama. To iu koto wa, anata no musume desu ka?(4)"

Kasumi's mother, Kuina, nodded as she said "Hai, sore wa Arashi-dono desu. Kanojo wa anata no shiai o chūdan shita baai, watashi wa mōshiwakearimasen.(5)"

The old man burst into laughter as he said "Chūdan?! Sonotame, anata no musume, watashi wa shōgi de ushinawa remashita!(6)"

Both older men laughed, as the other one said "Anata wa soko ni hijō ni chitekina on'nanoko Kuina-sama o motte imasu.(7)"

Kuina gave a smile towards the two elders in front of her, before she bowed and left, her daughter in her arms, and a smile on her face. The little girl in her arms, however, had a happy look on her face as she thought over what she had just done. Sure she couldn't form complete sentences, and she didn't really want to either, but she was happy none the less. From a side view, she could see the board easily compared to the other two who were playing the game, and she didn't have to think as hard.

Most people wouldn't think that a 6 month old would be able to think as much as she was, but for reasons that she didn't know, and most likely didn't want to know, in terms of her mentality. She didn't think she was much smarter than her age, but a lot of people would disagree especially since she looked at everything with a matter of intelligence that most people wouldn't put with a small child like herself.

When the dinner was done and the family was going home, Kuina looked towards her with a thinking look. Eventually, Kuina gave her daughter a little room as she sat her on her knee. The smaller Uzumaki was looking towards her mother with a tilted look, as the older of the two asked "Anata wa watashi wa anata o shinai nani o itte iru shitte imasu ka?(8)"

Kasumi tilted her head a bit as her mind registered the words, and even if she didn't speak the language quite yet, she understood and gave a smile and a nod with clapping hands.

For a few days after that Kuina started to teach her younger daughter how to talk, while the father of the family started to teach Kushina to start to read and write. The two would trade off every once in awhile, but it seemed that Kasumi always enjoyed spending time with her mother and sister more than her father. Don't misunderstand, she loved her father just as much when it comes to her family, but she liked spending time with the female members of her immediate family due to both of them not treating her like someone her age in comparison to someone who was more mature.

Most people around this time would start to treat Kasumi like a little baby and say things in a baby voice. Instead, both Kuina and Kushina both talked to her like they would someone who could understand her. Their father on the other hand would just speak short sentences that would cause Kasumi to from at her father and start babbling in annoyance since she couldn't talk like Kushina could just yet.

Though on the other hand, the first thing that Kasumi said other than Kaasan, or neesan was "Baka-tousan!"

Needless to say that the head of the Uzumaki clan was sulking for a while as whenever Kasumi saw her father she would say that and he would get sent into his depression again. On the other side of the coin, Kushina and Kuina were both laughing at the misfortune of the only male in the household.

To make things worse, Kushina was starting to go through the unofficial rite of passage when it came to the Uzumaki clan. She had started to prank other members of the clan. It wasn't that big of a problem for most Uzumaki, as pranks were normal, though considering that every member of the clan was hyper, that didn't help much. The pranks were usually elaborate, as when Kasumi could talk she said plans to her older sister that would make a trap specialist blink in both surprise and fear.

The ideas were simple by themselves, but when Kushina did the heavy lifting, so to speak, and the younger, now 1 year old, Uzumaki giving out instructions, the two were not to be trifled with. It was honestly something that even the elder Uzumaki feared when it came to the two. The two's pranks were set off, one time the most feared swordswoman, yes woman, in the village, was covered from head to toe in bright pink paint that wouldn't come off for a couple of days.

And that was one of the more mild pranks the two brought out of a bag of tricks.

As for kasumi by herself, she was even more interested in a lot of the board games that the Uzumaki clan played on their free time. On example was Shogi, another chess. No matter what kasumi played, she wasn't the best player, but she beat people that were a good ten years older than her. People that were adults or older, on the other hand, were different. She struggle to even come up with a single plan of action where she could take out a good piece, the rest of the piece's coming to her easily, but the better ones were always out of her reach easily.

But even with this, Kasumi was shown as a mental talent easily when it came to her clan, and it was suspected that she would become the head of the strategic department when she grew up. It was similar to the Jonin commander of Konohagakure no sato, That was still a good many years ahead of the girl, and a few of the older generation knew that she wouldn't be able to get the rank, but none were willing to elaborate. The biggest thing, however, was the fact that the two sister were more like twins than younger or older sister.

The two hardly had any secrets that the other didn't know about, and it honestly surprised their parents. The two tended to share a lot with each other as well, and that suited both of the parents just fine.

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**(1):Aww, kanojo wa totemo kawaīdesu! Kanojo no namae wa nanidesu ka?: Aww She's so cute! What's her name?"**

**(2): Kanojo no namae wa kasumi desu. Kushina wa kanojo ni anedearu aishi, soshite sore ni tsuite manzoku shite Imu : Her name is Kasumi. Kushina loves being a big sister to her, and i'm happy about that.**

**(3): Ossharutōri. Ōku no kyōdai ni shite mo watashitachi no kazoku ni, tatakaimasu. :So true. To many siblings fight, even in our family.**

**(4): Kuina-sama. To iu koto wa, anata no musumedesu ka?: Kuina-sama. Is that your daughter?"**

**(5): Hai, sore wa Arashi-dono desu. Kanojo wa anata no shiai o chūdan shita baai, watashi wa mōshiwakearimasen. : Yes she is Arashi-dono. I'm sorry if she interrupted your match.**

**(6): Chūdan?! Sonotame, anata no musume, watashi wa shōgi de ushinawa remashita! : Interrupted?! Because of your daughter, I Lost in Shogi!**

**(7): Anata wa soko ni hijō ni chitekina on'nanoko Kuina-sama o motte imasu. :You have a very intelligent daughter Kuina-sama.**

**(8):Anata wa watashi wa anata o shinai nani o itte iru shitte imasu ka? : You know what I'm saying don't you?"**

**So... What did you guys think?**

**I honestly was happy with this chapter, and I have the next chapter already planned out at the very least, so I hope you continue to read this, and please review as well. I need your support to know what you think of this story, and here's a question as well.  
**  
What do you guys think of how Kasumi is portrayed in terms of her intellect?


	3. Somethings are better unsaid

**Hello again. This is Cindy for the third chapter of Misty Vortex. Now, for those of you who actually read this, thank you, and thank you those of you who reviewed. It is much appreciated, especially since I don't want Kasumi to turn into a Mary-sue if I can help it. She's supposed to be mentally inclined, where as the bloody habanero (A.K.A: Kushina) is physically inclined. It doesn't mean that Kushina is stupid, I'm just saying she's not as smart as Kasumi is.**

**Now getting onto reviews.**

**Kani-leek-lover: glad you like the story! Yeah, Kasumi was meant to be the type to read a book more then she would want to go outside. She has already learned every seal she could, what with an adult mind? But add that with near photographic memory, and she can remember things, even if she can't make it. On the other hand, she isn't as physically strong as her sister, which balances her out. Either way Kushina and Kasumi couldn't be more different in their personalities.**

**Native-x: glad you liked it, and I hope you give a bit more next time. Don't get me wrong, I love the feedback, but I would appreciate reviews that tell me what I could fix. Either way, thank you, and hope to hear from you again.**

**Littlebirdd: yeah, I've seen that type of thing. It annoys me to no end to see Mary-sue's like that. I've stated it before, but Kasumi is going to be more mentally inclined then physically. She will still be able to travel the distance of 20-30 miles a day at Jõnin speed, but she has the mental capacity to rival a Nara. Hope that little bit of info helps.**

**With that done, let's get this chapter started!  
**

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_Disclaimer: I own nothing except any non cannon characters, events, or items. Viewer discretion is advised._

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Kasumi was now three years old and by this point she was completely independent from anything and everything when it came how she acted. She was a smart child, that much was sure, but she was an awkward one as well. This stemmed from the fact that she was more mature mentally than others her age. The biggest example of this was when people her age tried to talk to her when she went out to play with kids her age. She stood there completely unsure what to do before she grabbed a book that some of the ten year olds were having trouble reading, and she sat down in the grass under a sakura tree, the mist from the ocean rolling in as well making her seem almost like a ghost.

After that she started to get into board games as well and she didn't play anyone but the adults more than anything. As it turned out it was more her instincts that had helped that one elder beat the other before, as when she played the same Elder after she could actually talk, she lost with him not losing a single piece. Instincts could only go so far, and the fact that it made her see just how large the gap between herself and the smartest of the clan, it made her more determined to exercise her brain more than her muscles. She still worked on those as well, but she spent so much time on her brain building exercises that she was subpar compared to most Uzumaki in terms of physical fitness.

Kushina had tried many times to get her sister more involved with the Physical side of being an Uzumaki, but it never worked out in the end. The mental fatigue that she got just from playing Shogi, Go and Chess took so much energy out of the girl that if she tried doing everything that Kushina did, she would have ended up so exhausted that she wouldn't have been able to move for a couple of days. At the same time though it could end up with her almost dying from exhaustion, so the whole family stopped trying to get her to be more physical than most, as she was still better than most shinobi in the world in terms of fitness.

Take now for example, Kasumi was sitting in front of her father, the current Uzumaki clan head, with a concentrated expression. This was the seventh game that they had started in the last hour, and in the last six, she had lost all of them in 5 moves or less. From what she remembered her father was the head for a reason, and that wasn't just because he was the heir to the Uzumaki line. It was also due to the simple fact that he had managed to beat the head elder once before. It hadn't happened again, but it wasn't because of winning that he had become clan head to begin with.

Kasumi hesitantly put a hand out towards her dragon king, as she had actually managed to promote a piece, as this game had lasted longer, before she took her fingers away from it and moved one of her silver generals, and she moved it one space forward, only for her father to put his pieces into position to make it so that she couldn't move anything without endangering her king, while also having another piece in just the right place to where it couldn't be anything but Checkmate.

Kasumi's eyes roamed over the board quickly in a desperate attempt to see if there was any way out of the current predicament, before she let her head hang in depression.

Her father let out a small laugh he said "Hey hey, Don't get so depressed Kasu-chin."

Kasumi leveled a hard look at her father as she said "Otousan, you're not a teenager, quit with the "Chin" you add to my name."

Now it was her father's turn to get depressed, and just as her mother walked into the room. The redheaded woman gave a snort as she asked "What's got you depressed this time? Did Kasumi-chan beat you?"

Said redheaded girl gave a snort of her own as she said "Nah, I just called him old. He keeps adding 'Chin' to my name. He doesn't do that to Neechan."

"You're the baby. You're father didn't have all that much time to be around Kushina when she was a baby you know." Her mother stated with a soft smile "Politics and all you know."

Kasumi let out a loud groan as she looked towards her mother with big teary eyes "Please don't make me go to Obachan's 'Lady Classes' again. I can't take any more lessons on how to be a-" She stopped for a second as she straightened her back and made her voice slightly raspy "- 'Fine young lady that can be the husband of an important figure' As she puts it."

Her mother gave a quick sigh as she said "You know, I sometimes wish you weren't so smart Kasumi. Other times I look at your sister, and thank Kami that you were a quiet baby."

Kasumi let out a stifled laugh as she let a smirk crawl on her face "Just don't let Neechan hear you say that. Both me and Otousan know exactly where her temper comes from."

"Oh?" Her father suddenly stated "Does that mean that you don't have a temper either? I seem to recall a certain mature three year old that reacted violently the first time she lost to me in Shogi."

Kasumi's face lit up in embarrassment as she crossed her arms with a huff and looked away. Yes she had gotten a little upset the first time she lost... Ok a lot upset, but her dad had all but owned her the first time they played Shogi. Not one single piece had been lost by the clan head, but Kasumi on the other hand, had completely lost it as she had flipped the board upside down, with a pissed expression. From what her mother had told her afterwards, she didn't look scary despite this. Heck, if anything, she just looked cute with her angry expression. That had both embarrassed the small girl, and pissed her off even more. Enough even to be able to use the one thing that all Uzumaki woman had in their arsenal.

The Floating hair.

Anyone that knew the Uzumaki knew exactly what that entailed. When an Uzumaki woman is pissed off, there are usually a couple of levels as to how far it when. First level was just the angry expression. The next level usually entailed eyes that were completely whited out, and most people knew then and there not to piss off the woman anymore than she already was. The unlucky ones who didn't receive the Floating hair anger level that usually resulted in pain for the one they were pissed at. This was usually due to the fact that when the Uzumaki women were pissed off, they used Chakra enhanced punches to deal more pain. It was literally like they flooded the limb with Chakra and then punched anyone who was the cause of their anger.

Her punches weren't strong enough to hurt anyone as her body wasn't exactly that strong to begin with, but it was enough to know that she had inherited the infamous Uzumaki temper. Not all of the Clan had such fiery tempers, but a good number of them did. Kasumi was one of the rare ones that had both the mental aptitude of a planner, and the temper of the Uzumaki. It wasn't due to her temper that she lost her match's though, but her temper did cause her to get into trouble after the matches were don't.

Later that night, Kasumi was thinking over everything that had happened so far as she could remember. The first was that she seemed almost aware of her birth, as she remembered the day after she was born as well. There was also the fact that she didn't right away recognize the language that her parents had started to talk when she was born. Baby's didn't have that problem most of the time though, she didn't know exactly what it was.

Kasumi froze for a second as she felt a pain go through her forehead, before a memory played in her head.

A girl with brown hair and grey eyes was at a stove cooking some eggs with an almost blank expression on her face, with almost no emotion showing in her eyes. Behind her were two people. One of them was a man in a suit, or what was left of a suit. His white dress shirt was stained and from the smell, the stains were due to him being drunk. Across from him was a woman with brown hair just like the girl, and grey eyes as well.

The girl flipped the eggs a few more times, before moving them onto a plate and setting them in front of the two adults in front of her. She didn't make a move from where she was, her emotionless gaze just staying right where it was, as if she was waiting for something.

Eventually the man picked up a fork and took a bite of the egs, only to spit them out right away, and turn towards the girl, an ugly sneer on his face "I said sunny side up and lightly spiced! You can't do one thing right can you?!"

The girl didn't respond right away, but she eventually did with an equally dead tone "I'm sorry father, I will make you more if you do not want them."

The man stood up and got in her face, never hitting her though "I don't want more you idiot! I want you to do things right!"

The whole time the man was yelling at the girl, the woman at the table didn't say anything as she elegantly ate her food, a regal look on her face even. The whole time, however, the man continued to yell at the girl, not even bothering to care that the neighbors could hear everything, but they couldn't prove anything so the girl was stuck with this treatment.

"Are you going to answer me you idiot?!" The man yelled, spit flying onto her face in the process.

She didn't react right away once again, but once again she eventually did with an almost dead tone "Again i am sorry father, I will make you more so you do not have to-" The girl was interrupted by a loud crack filling the air.

Kasumi shook her head as the memory ended, but she was left with chills down her spine when she realized that those memories shouldn't have been her's. She didn't know where those memories even came from, but she knew that it had scared her. Being a mature child or not, she was still a child and she didn't know a lot about the harshness of the world. Her mother had even stated that she didn't want her children to know the harshness yet.

Shivering once again, Kasumi got up from her bed and she traveled through the house trying to find her parents room, but she stopped when she heard her mother's voice say "I don't care! Why do we have to send both of our children there? There are other children that have the same chakra!"

One of the elder's voices was heard afterwards as he said "The main family has stronger blood than any other Uzumaki, Kuina. You know this."

Kasumi's mother let out a growl as she said "I don't care! You expect me to willingly give up not one, but two of my children to them? You must be crazier than Uchiha Madara was!"

Another old voice, this one female, gave a disapproving sound as she said "Kuina. You must understand that should such a beast actually be free, there is nothing stopping it from coming to just outside our village and killing everyone just because no one could contain it."

Kuina stayed silent for a few seconds, before her shaky voice, Indicating she was crying, said "I'm sorry. Its just... Their my girls. My only children, You can't expect me to be alright with it ok? I'm going to miss them so, so much when they leave. I understand that one of them will be the backup in case something goes wrong, but I just hope to see them again afterwards."

Kasumi didn't know exactly what was going on, but she knew enough to know that she wasn't welcome here, so she walked back to her room, and then took a right instead of a left, bringing her into her sister's room. Said sister was dead asleep, snoring even, as Kasumi walked in and climbed into the bed with her sister. Kushina jolted awake at this, though when she saw her sister, she gave a soft look.

"Imouto. Is everything ok?" Kushina asked with a bleary look and tone.

Kasumi buried her head into Kushina's longer red hair as she said, loud enough so Kushina could hear "Nightmare."

Kushina stared at her little sister for a few seconds trying to remind herself that even if her younger sister was more mature, she was still a kid and was prone to nightmares just as much as adults. Of course due to this, the older redhead hugged Kasumi to comfort her, and not to long after that they both fell asleep.

Despite what Kasumi had said, Kushina knew that it wasn't due to a nightmare. Her little sister was never this shaken up due to a nightmare. She was shaken up, that much was true, but never to the point that she was trembling in her sister's arms. Kasumi was always the more mature of the two of them, and the fact that she was scared, that meant that something horrible had happened, and that scared her even more. Kushina would never admit it, but she was a lot more scared of things than her sister was, and that alone was enough to cause her to worry about what it was.

Kasumi looked up towards her sister with tired eyes, before she mumbled out "Promise you won't ever leave me?"

Kushina, despite being only two years older, knew that there were some things that you couldn't promise, and this was one of them. With a barely hidden grimace, Kushina said "Kasumi, I ca-"

"Promise me. Promise you wont leave me." Kasumi said with barely restrained fear in her voice, causing Kushina to look towards her sister with a soft expression.

"I promise Imouto. I wont leave you." Kushina said with a tone that showed that she was going to do whatever she could do to keep the promise. Being a Kunoichi was a dangerous business though, and she knew that there were things that could lead to her death, but she was going to be damned before she didn't try to keep her promise.

Kushina had expected Kasumi to say something else after that, but instead she found that her sister was sleeping soundly. A small smile graced the features of the older sibling, before she fell asleep as well, both of them hugging each other that showed just how close they really were. This was the scene that both of the parents found their children in a few hours later when they went to check on them, and it brought a smile to their faces.

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**Well, thats pretty much it for this chapter, you can expect to find the next chapter soon, so I hope you like it when it gets to that point. Thanks for reading!**


	4. The end of many, the beginning of few

**Well, here's another chapter for the misty vortex, and I hope everyone likes this chapter as well. i don't have all that much to say at this point, as this chapter is, so I hope to hear from you guys.**

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_Disclaimer: I do not own any canon characters or events, everything non-canon in this story is mine though._

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_This chapter is a revised version of the original._

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Ok, getting everything out of the way and said, Kasumi had a bad feeling about today. She had turned 4 not to long ago, and her sister was still being home schooled, something her parents hadn't don't with her yet, but that wasn't it. There was a tension in the air that was starting to drive Kasumi crazy. It was like something was about to explode, and she didn't like it. She wasn't stupid, far from it actually, but for whatever reason the feeling wouldn't go away. The seasoned Shinobi were a lot more tense than she was as well, but for whatever reason that wasn't what caught her attention. It was a sight outside of the walls of Uzushiogakure. There was a light of some form in the sky, but it hadn't moved either. Whatever it was, seemed to be watching them more than anything.

Kuina had noticed her daughter's stare at the same time, which made her frown. For the first time in almost six years, she had to put her shinobi gear, and the whole village was waiting. There were transportation seals under every house to send children all over the shinobi nations if need be, as there was always that threat of someone trying to destroy their home. It was always some place where the Uzumaki were welcome no matter what, and that would help a lot in terms of what where they would be sent. The only exception was with her two daughters. They would be sent to Konoha, and they would be sent without an adult.

Kuina jumped up when she saw something heading towards the wall, exploding in the process. She cursed loudly when she realized that it was more towards the elder's section of the village. Right now she was thankful that everything important, including uzumaki history, would be sealed with blood seals. Without thought, however, she grabbed both her children, ignoring Kushina's yell of what was going on, before hitting the floor to show a small chamber under the house. She rushed into it, her daughters in both her arms, as she set them on the seal with a sad expression.

"Listen to me Kushina-chan." Kuina said with a bit of worry in her voice "No matter what happens, i need you to protect your sister, ok?"

Kushina gave a confused, and panicked, look as she asked "Okachan? Why would I-?"

Kunia quickly shushed her daughter before saying "Just listen to me Kushina-chan. I don't know If i'll be able to see you again, so please, protect your sister no matter what, ok?"

The Uzumaki matriarch didn't even let her daughter react before she activated the seal, sending her children to a safe room under the Senju compound in Konoha. With that out of the way, she gave a small sigh. In a flash, however, she had a kunai in her hand, it gleaming red as two Shinobi with an Iwa headband fell to the ground behind her. In an instant, the calm and collected Kuina went from her normal expression, to one of complete and utter fury.

Who were this shinobi, attacking

home and trying to kill

family like they didn't matter? She growled deeply before she pulled a paper tag out and threw it straight up. She was still in the seal room, so when the explosion went off, it didn't touch her, but fried about twenty shinobi that had a mix of three headbands. Iwa, Kumo, and Kiri.

So, she had these three hidden villages to thank for having to send her daughters away earlier than expected. She didn't know what they were trying to pull with this, but she wasn't going to let them get away with it, as she jumped out of the whole, and with a flash of movement, she had killed another three enemy shinobi that were attacking.

Heading towards the tower that would have the head of the village working, she saw that there was fighting all around the village, but no children among the dead bodies. The few Uzumaki that had died so far were the ones that were among the old and weary, but even then, they had a good baker's dozen worth of enemy Shinobi surrounding them, dead as well. It seemed they were even going for the Forbidden Fuinjutsu now that they knew there was a large probability that they were going to die, if the explosions around the village were anything to go by.

The reason it was forbidden was mainly due to the fact that they were extremely dangerous to allies, and in circumstances other than now, they would kill allies. The Jisatsu Fuin(1) was the perfect example of this. It created a large enough explosion, in a quick enough time frame, that the killer would almost always die with the dying. There was almost no way to dodge it either, and that tended to be the reason it was forbidden. The fact that it was being used, showed just how bad the situation it was.

With a frown, she continued on her way to the tower, killing anything in her war, which ended up giving her a body count of seven Kunoichi, all from Kumo, thirty Shinobi, and twelve animals, which she suspected were summons. When she arrived at the tower, however, she saw her husband clean off the katana blade that he had just used to kill several enemy shinobi that surrounded him.

"Its bad out there." Kuina said with a frown, which her husband gave a nod to.

"I know. But we need to keep fighting. The Fuinjutsu masters have managed to seal a majority of the most important things away, but there is still a lot that they need to do. We will lose, there is no doubt about it, but we will die trying." Was the Uzumaki clan head's single response, which was enough to give Kuina a smile of understanding.

It was the truth, something that both Kuina and her husband knew. They were going to die, and there was nothing they could do about it. Even the best seal's could only do so much. She was thankful now, that she had managed to send Mito a couple of trinkets for her children's next birthday last week. If she didn't, then she was sure that they would never have gotten the gifts. It was also a little thing that showed that there was a blood seal on the biggest information they had. No one could destroy the room that the blood seal contained, and only an living Uzumaki could get in, but before the enemy would realize that, they would have killed all of the Uzumaki in Uzushio.

Kuina gave a nod of understanding, as she said "Than, we need to make sure they stay away from the sealers. We need to make sure that as much information can be reclaimed by the next generation as possible."

With that, the two walked out of the building, knowing full well that they would never get to see their children again, until after they were dead. Despite this, they both walked out with smiles on their faces, and hands held together between them.

With Kushina and Kasumi, however, the younger of the two Uzumaki was crying her eyes out. She wasn't stupid like most four year olds. She knew what had happened to her parents, and she was crying in grief that had Kushina as well. They would never see their parents again, and that, more than anything else, was what caused them to start crying. At the same time though, Kushina was crying silently, being the stronger older sibling, while Kasumi cried into her sister's shoulder. Kushina was doing everything she could to comfort her little sister as she cried, but it didn't seem to be enough.

Snapping her head up as the door to the room started to open up, Kushina gripped the Kunai that her mother had given her the day before as a way to show that she trusted the younger Uzumaki with weapons. As the door opened though, she threw the weapon at whoever it was, and to immense disappointment, the figured ducked, but not before the Kunai cut through something ,causing the person, who looked elderly, to have her hair fall out of the buns she had on before.

The woman was on the older side, but it was obvious that she had once been a really beautiful woman, as she didn't show that many age lines like many old people did. Her hair was a subdued red color that showed her age, unlike Kushina and Kasumi who's hair was a vibrant red color that all Uzumaki had, along with the violet eyes.

The Uzumaki in front of them, gave a frown, as she said "Now that wasn't very nice. I was waiting for a couple of months now for my great grandchildren to come, and the first thing one of them does is throw a kunai at me."

"G-great grandchildren?!" Kushina yelled, startling Kasumi, and making her cry louder before. Kushina gave a pained look at this as she held her sister tighter than before trying to get her to calm down. The older Uzumaki didn't get any closer than she was at the moment as she watched the two siblings try and comfort each other. No matter what anyone would say, Kasumi was just as much a comfort to Kushina as the older Uzumaki was to the younger.

After a few minutes, Kasumi had fallen asleep, on Kushina's lap, while the older Uzumaki gave a soft look towards the children in front of her. Right away she knew that they were survivors of the Uzumaki. The clan was now spread across the nation as the children, and what adults that were sent with them, went into hiding as a way to protect the next generation. Maybe one day, the remnants would find each other, but not in her lifetime it would seem.

The elderly Uzumaki gave a sigh, before she said "Pick her up and follow me. I have some place that she can sleep. Itll be a lot nicer to her than sleeping on the floor after all. I'm Mito by the way."

Kushina gave a look towards the Uzumaki in front of her, but listened to her. It wasn't in an Uzumaki's nature to be deceiving with words. Emotions were completely different though. Actions and words were some things that uzumaki never got as well as anything else, but there were the exception to the rule every once in awhile. Kasumi was an example of this.

Kushina gave a nod of acknowledgement, before she said "Kushina." But nothing else. It seemed she wanted her sister to introduce herself instead of telling Mito her name. The last time she did that, Kasumi got angry, as she saw it as a way of her family babying her. It was found extremely early on that Kasumi did not like being babied. She had almost ripped Kushina's hair out once for doing it. It was an accident as the two year old, at the time, was grabbing at her sister's hair. The second she heard 'Babying' words, she pulled a little to hard on her sister's hair, and it took both her parents to get the smaller Uzumaki off her older sister.

Mito gave a soft, and warm, smile towards the older sister, as she said "I'm not going to hurt her you know. I would just like to know her name is all."

Kushina gave a bit of a laugh, as she said "Even if she's only four, she hates being babied. She tried to rip some hair out once for us doing that..."

Mito gave a quick chuckle at that, but more in the sense of 'I understand your pain' which was reinforced when she said "Siblings can be like that I guess. They want to prove that they can do things on their own, which can cause them to do some things they normally wouldn't."

The older Uzumaki gave a small laugh at that as well. It seems that the elder of the three knew what she was talking about. As she followed though, she saw several doors in the hallway they were in, until they eventually reached a room where there was a futon already laid out. It obviously hadn't been used for awhile by the slight dust on it, but with a quick fuuton jutsu, courtesy of Mito, it was clean. Kushina eventually set her sister on the futon, with a smalls smile at the sight of her sister sleeping soundly, Kushina turned towards Mito with a frown.

"Where are we?" The oldest of the siblings asked with a frown.

Mito grinned slightly "Konohagakure no sato."

Kushina's eyes widened at the mention of the village, but she really couldn't believe it. They couldn't have gone all the way to Konoha so fast. There had to have been at least a thousand miles between Uzushiogakure and Konoha. Despite this though, Kushina could believe it when she thought back to the fact that it was a seal that was used. It would probably take a lot of chakra, more than what an adult Uzumaki could get, which made her think over something else. How did they get that much chakra for the seal?

"A chakra storage seal." Mito's voice said breaking Kushina out of her thoughts and giving a surprised look towards the older woman "You were thinking aloud."

That caused Kushina's face to heat up in embarrassment, though she did say "I think I get it. They stored up chakra for when the would need the seal?"

Mito gave a nod to that "Correct. The seal would take almost three times the chakra a normal adult Uzumaki. They needed to constantly be on guard due to the war, but at the same time they needed a lot of chakra to send the many Children all over the elemental nations."

Kushina frowned at that. Despite being only six years old, she knew why they werent all sent to the same place. Doing so could make wherever they were sent a target as well. Eventually they could probably regroup, but that wouldn't be for awhile. Tears threatened to escape from Kushina's eyes at that thought. She wouldn't be able to see anyone she knew for a long time, if ever, and that was enough to make the normally strong Uzumaki, cry.

Mito gave a soft look towards the child that was in front of her, and with a small smile, she hugged the girl to comfort her. The older Uzumaki gave a small sigh of what could only be weariness, as she got ready to help both girls move forward in their life.

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**Here's another chapter done and over with, so I actually hope you guys tell me what you think of this chapter! I'm done with my piece at this point, so I hope to hear a review or two.**

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_Jisatsu Fuin: Suicide seal= A forbidden Uzumaki seal that was only able to be learned by those of Jonin rank and above. The seal, as it sounds, is a seal that activates upon death, but in this case, it causes a large explosion that is incredibly hard to dodge due to there being no warning for the explosion._


	5. Mendokusè

**Hello again. This is Cindy, the Co-author of this account! I, um... Really don't know what to say at this point... Well let's just get onto the review responses then.**

**Native-x: Well, your just gonna have to wait and see aye?**

**Kani-leek-lover: I'm glad you liked that part. Gotta have a bit of fluff here and there, can't have it all being serious. With Shikaku its for you to figure out ^_^. Well, that's good. It took me a bit to get the school thing right, and I'm glad I managed to get it right. Well, I was under the impression that they were in the war to begin with, maybe not the front lines, but they were in the war, I mean Minato fought in the war, so why couldn't Kushina? You can count on Mito being alive at least until the two graduate. After that, it's all up in the air.**

**That's that, so onto then chapter!**

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"_Uzumaki_!" A loud voice of a teacher yelled, followed by a loud laugh.

Kasumi, who was sitting against a tree along with Shikaku, reading a book, just let out a sigh. Closing her book, she handed it over to Shikaku, who took it with an amused look on his face. Kasumi gave him a slightly annoyed look, before she stood up, her longer black and red hair swinging behind her.

Taking off in a run, Kasumi started to run up a wall using a chakra control excercise that the genin weren't supposed to have learned just yet, but she knew anyway, and went to the roof. Stopping as she looked around, Kasumi spotted a familiar head of red hair running at a fast pace, with a couple of chunin behind her. Shaking her head, Kasumi called down to Shikaku "I'll see you later Shikaku-san. Make sure my book is safe."

Shikaku simply gave a two finger salute Kasumi's book held firmly underneath his right arm, just as Inoichi and Choza walked by. Inoichi looked after Kasumi with an amused look "I hate nearly would have thought you would have considered her too troublesome at this point."

Shikaku gave a simple shrug at that, as he said "What can I say, she grows on you."

Choza let out a snort, while he munched on a bag of chips "The way things are going, you're going to end up on a team with her. Every team gets a Kunoichi afterall."

Shikaku gave a small sigh at that "Good thing she's not the Kunoichi of the year at the moment then. That goes to Uchiha Mikoto though, doesn't it?"

All three boys, at the thought of the Uchiha Kunoichi, let out a sigh, that followed by them rubbing their heads. Despite her being from such a stuck up clan, and the fact that she was to be the clan Matriarch eventually, she was eccentric. That was partially to due to Kushina's influence. The number one hyperactive redhead Kunoichi, or as her nickname was the 'bloody habanero after she beat up some students who called her 'Tomato' was influencing her, and many people (none in the Uchiha clan) were actually happy she wasn't so stuck up, though many wished it wasn't Kushina who influenced her.

One such person was Kasumi, who had lost her sister due to a genjutsu made by said Uchiha. It wasn't a bother to the Nara-like Uzumaki, but it was enough to have Kasumi loose her sister. In the two years that she had been in the academy she had grew enough to not be called a chibi anymore, which was to say she was now at an acceptable height of 3'6 and she had changed out of darker clothes, into still dark, but more brighter clothes such as a deep red.

Along with her physical growth, her mental aptitude had become even larger the before on account of Kasumi and Shikaku's daily Shogi match. Needless to say, the games usually took all of the break period, and it was to the point that when it wasn't one persons turn, they ate, while the other person took their turn. It got really boring for everyone who had decided to try and watch, but for those few who saw it interesting either way, still watched with extreme interest, though the matches seemed to always end in stalemates, but if one would look closer, the matches were dragging out further and further, which meant that the two still stood on even ground, but they were growing in their mental aptitude.

With a sigh, however, Kasumi threw a senbon at a wall to her right, which dug in and caused a yelp to be heard. Turning towards the wall, right as a genjutsu dispelled showing Uchiha Mikoto on the ground, the senbon that was thrown, an inch above her head, the dark haired girl standing at it with wide, coal black eyes.

Walking up to the girl that was on the ground, Kasumi simply said "Tell me where she is, and I won't tell anyone about you helping her. That, or I could have Mito-Oba-san deal you Kushina's punishment along with her."

It was simple, and straight to the point, but it got through to the Uchiha girl. No one, and that meant absolutely no one, wanted to have Uzumaki Mito's version of punishment. There had been a lot of people who ended up getting said punishment while Mito was younger, and here were still some now even. She was fierce and strong for someone who was almost 70-80, Kasumi didn't know exactly as she never gave her age to anyone.

Mikoto told her where she should have gone, and Kasumi gave her a light pat on the head in response. The red and black haired girl giving a soft smile, something that was still rare at this point even with Shikaku's influence, and jumped away, leaving the Uchiha Matriarch to be, in a bit of a stunned state.

Running to catch up to where Kushina was, Kasumi gave a small smile, figuring that it should have been obvious in hindsight. From what Mikoto had said, she was at the top of the Hokage monument, something that even civilian's can get up to with the right path up. It was also one of the few places that let Kushina see the whole village in peace and quiet. Not to mention that the sunset was honestly breathtaking when it came to the mountaintop view.

Kasumi eventually made it to the top of the monument, and to her surprise, instead of seeing Kushina alone, she saw the blonde boy from their class with her. She had a look of anger on her face, and the boy looked nervous, but before Kasumi could do anything, Kushina punched him in the nose, and ran off, her feet stomping along the way. Kasumi let out a small sigh at that, and walked over to the taller blonde boy.

When said blonde noticed her staring, he recoiled a bit due to her lilac eyes having such an intense quality to them. That was something that unnerved everyone except for Kushina. Her eyes usually held an intense color to them when she had her mind working overtime, and the fact that such a gaze was directed to him of all thing, unnerved him to no end.

After a few more seconds of staring, Kasumi, in her normal quiet tone, said "Your Namikaze Minato from our class... What is it you did to make Kushina-nee punch you?"

Minato gulped audibly, as he stood up, and shook his head "I-I didn't do anything. I just complimented her hair is all."

Kasumi's gave a hum of understand at that "Kushina-nee is brash, blunt, and all around stubborn, but her hair is a sore spot. How could it not be when in our first year of the academy people had started to call her 'Tomato' due to her hair? I ignored the calls of 'Rotten apple' but Kushina can take things a bit too literally at times."

Minato sweat-dropped at Kasumi's words. Was she trying to encourage him, or tell him off? He wasn't to sure.

"What I'm trying to say is, the compliment came as a surprise to her. She doesn't deal with surprises in the best ways, so don't worry. Also, I think you two would be nice together. I've already thought things through and I'm only six." Kasumi stated with a drawl at the end added with her soft tone.

That was another thing that had been added onto Kasumi's personality. She tended to add a drawling tone into her sentences just like Shikaku. It actually worked to piss enemies off, when in a fight, or comfort allies when outside of combat. It had the needed effects when it came to such fights, and it also helped that by doing that, she tended to be able think things out even more compared to when the enemy is trying to outwit her as well.

Minato gave a small smile towards the smaller girl, as he nodded "Thank you Uzumaki-san. I have to say though, Kushina-chan is confusing."

Kasumi, instead of blushing like she normally did from a compliment, gave a happy nod "Hai Namikaze-san. Just one thing." In an instant her calm demeanor turned demented "If you so much as think of hurting Kushina-nee, and you'll be on the wrong end of an Uzumaki made Kibaku Fuda."

There was something know very quickly when it came to the Uzumaki clan as well. Until they were mature enough to make their own, Uzumaki children were not allowed anything explosive. An Uzumaki Kibaku Fuda was normally three to four times as strong as a normal Kibaku Fuda. Take into consideration that Kasumi was on her way to becoming a Fuuinjutsu master, as she had a master over simplify things, and wasn't allowed to continue her studies until she graduated, and Kasumi's Kibuka Fuda would be enough to take out a good tenth of the village with one tag.

Despite not knowing all this, Minato still felt a shiver down his spine, when he saw her expression. With a quick, and hasty, nod, Kasumi's expression brightened once again, before she gave a bright wave, and walked away. The only thought going through the blonde's head was 'How can she have such wild mood swings?'

Along the way, however, Kasumi started to hum a song from her previous life. As she grew older, some of her old memories came back, but they were more of the artistic parts. She remembered some things like a face, but it never gave her any comfort. It always seemed like the memory of whatever dreadful thing that face meant, but every time it seemed like the memory would spill out of whatever crevice it was in, she would wake up, as was normal. It annoyed her to no end at times, but at others she was glad that whatever horrible memory it was never came again.

In the time that she had been in Konoha, she had confided in her sister and Mito more than she ever had before, and that included her sensory abilities. Mito seemed surprised by the fact that she was a sensory, and told her with strong emotions to never let the the council know about her abilities until she was Officially a Shinobi. Kasumi was confused about why, until Mito said that the Sensory ability was hereditary, but also rare. It meant that if she was found out to be a sensory type, she could be carted off and turned into little more than breeding stock, as crude as that sounded.

The young Uzumaki frowned at that thought, but didn't stop humming the song she had playing in her head. She knew what this world was like now, but it still didn't mean that she wants worried about the future. With a sigh, she stopped at Ichiraku's, where lo and behold, the Uzumaki that she had been she arching far and wide for, was sitting in eating ramen. With a sigh, she gave a small nod towards Shikaku, who was also waiting at Ichiraku's, though he was standing outside of the stand, where as, Kushina was inside stuffing her face.

Shikaku handed the youngest Uzumaki her book, while said girl gave a small smirk towards Shikaku. Despite what anyone said, the two had actually gone out with each other on multiple occasions, and they both enjoyed the company of the other. That was one thing that was good when it came to the Nara, and Uzumaki. They both had the mental capacity of an adult, even if their tactical minds were a bit dull compared to some of the adult Nara's, but they both knew what they were getting into, and they knew not to push anything until they were old enough. That was actually something that both Mito, and Shikaku's parents had stated multiple times.

The two sets of guardians knew that their children, or Grandchildren in Mito's case, had every idea of what they were doing. Even if the idea of a future with each other didn't exactly pop up right away, they knew that Kasumi had every intention of seeing how far this would actually be able to go. So far though, it actually seemed that the two were going to be together in this sense for awhile. Both got along far too well for any other option, and unless something diaristic changes with one of their personalities, then there was nothing large stopping the two from staying in this sort of relationship for a while, before it bloomed into an actual relationship.

"Why do I even bother chasing her if she ends up here every time?" Kasumi drawled out, with a slightly hung head.

Shikaku let out another laugh, as he said "I don't know. You were complaining about not getting enough exercise at the academy. Think of chasing her as said exercise."

Kasumi scowled at Shikaku's comment, but she did take a seat inside of the Ramen stand, Shikaku not to far behind, taking the seat on Kasumi's left, while Kushina was on the younger Uzumaki's right.

Kushina, who had heard their conversation, was still stuffing her face with some Shio Ramen, while Kasumi got Chikin Ramen, and Shikaku got Tonkotsu Ramen. This was another thing that the Nara and Uzumaki did. They just went somewhere to eat at times. Sometimes it was a place Shikaku's choosing, sometimes it was of Kasumi's, and sometimes it was at Ichiraku's due to Kasumi trying to find Kushina. Either way, both of the intellectual Giants, in child terms, were fine with the meal they had now, though Kasumi was slightly annoyed due to the fact that they had to eat here, when she had wanted to go to the BBQ place that the Akimichi ran, but she was happy nonetheless.

Turning towards Shikaku with a neutral look, Kasumi Casually stated "So. Mito-oba-san Wanted me to invite you to dinner tomorrow."

Kushina choked on her Ramen at that, while Shikaku just paused for a second and raised an eyebrow at that "Oh? My parents wanted me to bring you over at some point as well. Guess they think alike in that sense."

Kasumi let out a snort as she said "Or they planned this from the beginning. Knowing Mito-oba-san, It wouldn't surprise me. She gave me a talking to about this whole situation not to long ago."

"Yeah? My mother gave me the same talking to as you I guess." Shikaku drawled out "Mendokusè.. Of course they would do something like this. "

Kushina, who finally recovered at this point, looked towards her sister with wide eyes "You're actually going to invite him over? Aren't you moving a bit fast with all this? I mean, you're only six, and he's eight."

"Ah? Well what about you and Namikaze-san?" Kasumi asked in a drawling speech pattern.

Kushina grew a bit red around her ears, while she quickly turned away, and said "I don't know what you're talking about 'ttebane!"

Kasumi smirked as she heard the verbal tic that Kushina had "Oh? Than what's with the 'ttebane? You only let that out if you're nervous, or excited, and I'm pretty sure you're not excited."

Kushina turned towards her sister with a fierce look, as she yelled "There's nothing between me and Minato 'ttebane!"

Kasumi, instead of getting scared, just let out a laugh and said "Hai, hai. There's nothing going on between you and _Minato_ Nee-chan."

Shikaku let out a braking laugh along with Kasumi's giggle when Kushina dropped her head against counter that was in front of them.

A bit later when all of them finished eating, Kasumi was staring at the ground slightly, as she and Kushina walked home. Shikaku had went on his own way saying that he would be there for dinner at the Uzumaki household tomorrow, but that wasn't what Kasumi thinking about. Despite not letting anyone know it, she was worried about what the future would hold in this case. She knew that she would eventually have to kill someone, but it never really hit her until after she came to konoha due to what happened to her parents.

She hadn't wanted to think about it until now either. The fact that she would actually have to end someone's life... It scared her to no end. She knew that this wasn't her first life, and she could remember bits and pieces of the last life now, but she definitely knew that in her past life it was frowned upon to kill anyone unless in a desperate situation or unless you were a soldier. The fact that she was being trained to kill at the age of six... that was definitely something that was frowned upon when it came to her old life. She didn't remember what her old life was like, but she at the very least that this world was barbaric in contrast.

Shaking her head away from those thoughts, she continued on her way home, not noticing Kushina's look of worry.

* * *

**So? Did you guys like this chapter as well?**

**Seems like Mito and Shikaku's parents have the same thing in mind, no matter what the twos ages are. They both have the mental ability of someone far older, so they know what their getting into, even if they couldn't really do anything physically, or emotionally for that matter, until their older. Expect more soon though, so until next time!**

**Questions:**

**What do you think of the fact that Kushina is influencing the future Uchiha matriarch?**

**What did you think of Kasumi and Minato's talk?**

**What about Kasumi's 'mood swing'?**

**Do you think things are progress at an ok pace between Shikaku and Kasumi?**

**That's it for now.**


	6. Seals and dinner

**Hello and welcome to DB-**

**Sorry, wrong shtick. Anyway, here's another chapter with Misty vortex! I've been getting reviews as well, and I have to say, I'm happy! No offense to others, but Kani-Leek-Lover and Llyrica are the only ones who've given me a Review I actually consider a review. They actually criticize me one things I need to improve. gmelina123 did the same thing, though that was in a PM, but I still count it as a review! So please, give more descriptive reviews!**

**With that out of the way, let's get to review responses!**

**Llyrica: and thank you for reviewing! Ok, with Mikoto and Kushina, I know that I haven't shown to much with them, but in honesty, this is supposed to be OC centric, so it would make sense... Don't worry, I'm having at least going to have two more chapters before they graduate, and Mikoto and Kushina will be in them. With Minato and Kasumi's talk, you don't know how relived I am to hear that. I thought it would end up as one of those useless thoughts that no one paid mind to, the mood swing thing though... Hehe. You have a point. Kasumi, by the time she's 13 will have the mentality of someone at least 24. She's a scary smart kid. With Shikaku and Kasumi, that right there is what I've been trying to stress. Their both kids, no matter how mentally apt. They won't try anything until they are old enough, and even then it won't be until Kasumi is sure on what she wants.**

**InazumaSenshi: It's not necessarily the fact of the Jinchuriki that makes them worried. It's the possibility of Kushina, or Kasumi in the off chance, would loose control and kill their kid. It's understandable really. As for Shikamaru... I really can't see him without black hair. The eyes on the other hand... We'll see, and who knows, Shikamaru might end up with a sibling as well.**

**That's that, now onto disclaimer-Kun! (I'm weird)**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing! I do own Kasumi, or non-cannon events, but other then that, nothing!**

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Kasumi was tired. Understandable considering the fact that she was overthinking things. She was supposed to have Shikaku and his parents over for dinner tonight, and to say she was nervous was an understatement. The sole fact that she was going to have dinner with the parents of the boy she was 'Scouting out' was nerve wracking. The fact that Shikaku was in a similar situation didn't even occur to her. She was just nervous about the whole thing, and then some.

With a sigh, she got up despite the fact that there wasn't school today, or the fact that it was only 6:30 in the morning. She just couldn't sleep anymore, not with the thought of what could happen playing in her head.

Shaking her head quickly, Kasumi decided that she was going to practice some Basic Fuinjutsu. The basic seals usually only had one symbol on it. Kasumi wanted to eventually be able to make relay seals with symbols of 4 on top of another relay with 4 or more, as those were some of the most complicated seals in existence. The most complicated seal, and one that Kasumi had memorized, and was trying to figure out how it worked, was a relay seal of seven seals, with three over it, and 4 below it. It would be a long time before she could actually figure it out, or even make the seal, but she was determined to do it.

Sitting down in the training room of the Senju clan. It really was like an old fashioned Dojo to Kasumi, but it suited what she wanted just fine. Wide open space, with plenty of room for practicing the penmanship needed with Fūinjutsu. That, and the fact that the room had seals that made the room self cleaning, along with the fact that the walls were soundproof in the way that no one outside could hear inside, but the other way around was not so, made it perfect for Kasumi's Kami given gift with seals, as failed seals tended to blow up, literally.

Starting up with a basic storage seal, Kasumi decided that she would use this one for carrying around Kunai. Mito had explained that a seal master could make complicated seals that not only allowed for more then one item to be stored, but it could give a specific amount of what you needed, and could combine the two if needed. An example would be a Kunai with ninja wire. The complicated seal that Mito was talking about could have it so that the Kunai was immediately attached to ninja wire, while you could get an exact footing when it came to said wire as well. With that type of seal, you could really mess up someone's day.

Kasumi gave a soft smile as she continued to create the storage scroll, this one ending up being one for Kunai. It was on a piece of paper that was small enough to be a wrist bracelet if needed, but large enough that you could hide the seal without anyone knowing it was there. With another sigh, Kasumi set down her calligraphy brush and inspected the seal. Deciding to test the seal out before putting it on her wrist, she set a Kunai from one of the training racks onto the seal, and pumped chakra into said seal.

Expecting the seal to explode, Kasumi had spread a thin amount of chakra all around her body to act as a sort of cushion for when she was sent into a wall, but to her surprise, and joy, all there was, was a small cloud of smoke appearing. When the smoke cleared, however, there was a Kunai missing, and a Seal's kanji was a thicker black then the normal grey when there was nothing in it.

Grinning from ear to ear, Kasumi gave a happy sigh, before she wrapped the seal around her wrist, and tightly secured it.

"Well. It's seems someone's happy." An older voice stated, with an amused tone.

Kasumi, who was surprised by said voice, quickly activated the seal on her wrist, grabbing the Kunai, and turning towards the voice, getting ready to throw it, only to stop when Mito walked into the room. The older Uzumaki gave an an used look towards Kasumi, who only gave a frown of annoyance.

"Mito-oba-chan." Kasumi mumbled out.

The main rule with the Uzumaki household was that there was no training in seals without supervision. Kasumi had hoped that Mito would be asleep still, but even if the woman was getting up there in age, she was still a Shinobi, and she was determined as well. It seemed she didn't want to die on the two Uzumaki until they graduated from the academy. That fact alone was why Uzumaki Mito, the wife of Senju Hashirama, the founder of Konohagakure, was even still alive. She was determined to see the two Usumaki graduate at the very least. She also knew that when they graduated, Kushina would be forced into becoming the new Jinchuriki of the Kyuubi no kitsune.

Gaining a sterner look, Mito frowned at Kasumi, and asked "What are you doing up Kasumi? You know I don't want you practicing Fūinjutsu without supervision! Your not skilled enough yet to practice in your own!"

Kasumi flinched slightly at Mito's tone, but she understood why. To many Fūinjutsu students had died from either poor judgment, or no supervision. The ones who mainly died were always those that thought they were ready for more advanced seals. Even the most basic seal, when done wrong could end up killing you. That's just how dangerous the art was.

"Gomen Mito-Oba-chan. Thought that if it was a simple storage seal, that it would be fine. I forgot your lessons for a second." Kasumi stated, while looking down.

Mito, gave a small sigh in response "It's okay Kasumi-chan. You are ready for more advanced seals then a storage one, but I wanted to wait until you could make a flawless cooling seal. How about, you make one of those seals, while I wake Kushina up? Don't worry, I'll be having a Kage Bushin stay with you."

That was another thing that Kasumi wanted to learn. Kage Bushin. The Uzumaki, naturally, had too much chakra to be able to create a regular Bushin. Add that with the fact that the chakra is just so dense, and any illusion that an Uzumaki could make, had to be made with a seal. That was why the Uzumaki were so feared. Their large chakra reserves added with the humongous seal creativity, and the Uzumaki, by themselves, could easily take on Thousands of Shinobi with ease.

The younger Uzumaki gave a nod, before she pulled out another tag so that she could begin making the coolant seal. As the name suggested, it cooled down things that it was placed on, such as a drink, food, or even a person if the weather was extremely warm.

That one in particular was popular when it came to the warmer countries such as Kaze no Kuni.

Slowly, and carefully, writing out the seal layout, Kasumi was determined to get this right. Mito, who was standing right beside said Uzumaki was impressed. The young red and black haired girl was determined to get this right, and that was an admirable trait when it came to the Uzumaki's. The fact that she wanted to progress, was the starting point to becoming a seal master, and Mito was sure that Kasumi would surpass even her when it came to the art of Fūinjutsu. That wasn't to say that Kushina wouldn't be a sealing master either, but it was suffice to say that her skills were more physical then Kasumi's.

The younger of the two Uzumaki had a sharp mind, but she would always lose in a contest of pure physical strength. It was something that would stay no matter how much Kasumi trained. There would always be someone who was stronger then her physically, while it would be harder to physically beat Kushina. In the mental aptitude, however, Kasumi was a monster. It scared Mito how strong the girls mind was at her age. She could quite easily beat the elder Uzumaki in a game of Shogi, as well as Go, something that the elder was able to beat the first Nara elder at. The fact that her mental prowess would only grow, was really scary.

Then there was the Nara boy that Kasumi had her eye on. The two were evenly matched, and it was only getting worse. Their matches stretched out longer and longer, to the point that they would have to take a day to find the winner of a single match. They even challenged the Nara elders, even if they lost, to test themselves. It was the principle of them getting smarter that kept them coming back to challenge the elders. Kasumi, because she wanted to increase her mental Aptitude, and Shikaku, because of the same reason, but also because he was aiming to at least be able beat Kasumi at one point.

It was almost like he was using Kasumi as a measuring stick. She was the top in their class in terms of mental capabilities, even if she wasn't anyway near being the Top Kunoichi, so if he wasn't at a similar level in terms of mental abilities, then he was falling behind. That was something that both Mito and Shikaku's parents noticed. It wasn't a bad thing per say, but it did make the two children impromptu rivals in the logical side of things.

That wasn't to say that they wouldn't be friends because of it.

"Aaaaand... Finished 'ttebate!" Kasumi stated stated with a happy expression, while Mito looked towards the seal she made.

As she was doing this, Kushina walked in, a bleary eyed look on her face, and her hair sticking up every witch way. Suffice to say that Kushina was, by no means, a morning person. In fact, her legendary temper got even worse when she was woken up early.

With a loud yawn, Kushina's bleary eyed look, gained a more curious tone, as she saw that Kasumi was almost bouncing, and Mito was looking at a piece of paper, that no doubt had a seal on it. What was on the seal, however, was what Kushina wanted to know.

After a few minutes of silence Mito looked towards Kasumi with a smile and nodded "You passed. We will begin the more advanced seals tomorrow."

Kasumi let out a cheer of delight, while both her sister, and her grandmother looked towards her with amusement, and Kushina even gave a grin. She knew that her sister was going to be better then her when it came to seals, it was an art that favored the mentally inclined after all. On the other side of the coin, Kushina had unlocked her ability to use Kongō Fūsa (Adamantine sealing chains).

With a proud nod, Mito turned towards Kushina, as she asked "Do you wish to try and see if you can head to more advanced studies?"

Kushina shook her head "I know I'm not ready yet Oba-chan. Besides, Kasumi should be able to celebrate a bit before I get to the more advanced stuff."

Mito gave a chuckle at that, but the old Uzumaki, simply said "I see. Well, she can celebrate later. Right now, we have training to do."

Kushina gave a grin at that, while Kasumi stopped her little celebration, and gained a harder look. It wasn't that of what a Shinobi who got to Jounin rank had, but more along the lines of someone who was ready for harsh training conditions. Unsurprisingly, no matter how Nice Mito was, the elder Uzumaki was a slave driver. When they first arrived in Konoha, the two had to run around the whole of Konoha five times as a warm up. After that, it was even more exhausting for the two as they did other physical activities, but the winding down was of a mental sort, something that Kasumi was grateful for.

Mito had explained that after exercise, your brain tends to work faster due to the acceleration of blood and adrenaline in the brain. It was due to this, that she had them use a mental game, such as Shogi, or Go, to wind down from the training they had.

Needless to say, Kasumi won all of the matches.

About an hour later, Kasumi and Kushina both were on the ground panting from exhaustion, and it was only 1:00 in the afternoon. They normally trained for most of the day, but Mito, who was completely fine, had stated that they needed to be presentable for guests they were going to have. Kasumi knew what it was she meant, and no matter how much she despised formal attire, (what Uzumaki did?) she knew that she had to get ready.

Struggling to her feet along with Kushina, the both of them supporting one another, they headed towards the large bath that the compound had. It was big enough for both of them, so they could get clean at the same time to save time, but it was private, so no one would be looking in on them, though whatever person would try, had to be a pedophile. Seriously though, the oldest of them was Kushina, and she was only 8!

As the two slipped into the almost spa like bath they had, Kasumi groaned from sore muscles "How can you not be groaning Nee-chan? You did more then I did..."

Kushina, who was humming a bit before just shrugged "Hey, Oba-chan did say that I'm more physically inclined then you. Guess my bodies just more used to it then you are. I dunno."

Kasumi gave a hum in agreement "Hai, hai. I know that already Nee-chan. What I'm talking about is the fact that your not nearly as sore as I am, but I guess that's understandable. You do twice as much as I do every time Mito-Oba-chan trains us."

Both girls shivered for a second in remembrance of the training they had just received, though Kushina had something come to mind.

"Hey. Aren't you worried at all about that Nara kid coming over tonight along with his parents?" Kushina suddenly asked.

Kasumi didn't say anything for a second, but eventually she said "Not really. I'm six at the moment, but I can think like an adult. I know what I'm getting into Nee-chan."

"Hey! I never said you didn't. I'm just trying to make sure you don't do something stupid, ok?" Kushina stated, a pout on her face.

Kasumi just laughed a it before she said "I know, I know. Now come over here so I can wash your back.

About a half hour later, the two Uzumaki had exited the bath. And we're now dressed in some nicer clothes. Kushina in a green kimono, though it stopped at the thighs, and it was partially open in the front, to show a black shirt under it, while Kasumii had something similar, except for it was red, and she had it more traditionally don't up then Kushiina.

"Ugh... Do we have to wear these things? I mean, seriously! They are uncomfortable as hell!" Kushina complained.

"Watch your language!" Mito yelled from the other room.

"Sorry!" Kushina yelled back "But seriously. These things are so uncomfortable dattebane!"

Kasumi laughed slightly at her sisters misfortune, but she did help Kushina make it look better, while being more comfortable as well "We have guests. And with Mito being the widow of the first Hokage, we need to be like this as well."

Kushina grumbled a bit at that "Doesn't mean I have to like it..."

"And you think I do?" Kasumi asked with a raised eyebrow "I may be quieter then you, but I'm still an Uzumaki at heart. We're like a whirlpool. Where ever we are, we bring chaos."

Kushina let out a laugh at that, and she nodded in agreement. Kasumi brought chaos in the sense that she was so smart, and she had, a couple of times, told a teacher off for teaching something wrong. A little mistake involving the process of using chakra, as well as some theory, and Kasumi knew the people who learnt it would be in trouble. Kushina, on the other hand, was a prankster, who was by now means discriminatory with who she pranked. No one, not even the Hokage was safe.

Kasumi, tugged on the knot she created on a part of Kushina's Kimono, but when she did, she gave a smile towards the older girl, and then walked further into the house as Mito was cooking at the moment. Kasumi was a good cook as well, she was nowhere near as good as Mito, but she was learning, just as Kushina did.

When a knock on the door was heard, Kasumi walked towards the door, while Kushina went into the kitchen to help Mito, and opened it to see Shikaku, who was in a plain green hiaori, and his parents as well, who were dressed up.

Kasumi gave a smile towards the Nara's in front of her, before she bowed slightly and said "Thank you for taking time to have dinner with us."

Shikaku's father just gave a chuckle as he took a step forward "It wasn't that big of a deal."

The youngest Nara just gave a yawn in response, while his mother stated that it was an honor to meet her. That sentence brought an internal groan to Kasumi, as she knew that Mito would be talking about what was going to happen between Shikaku and her. With a slightly tightened smile, Kasumi lead the way into he house, and to the dining room, the three Nara's following closely behind.

When they arrived in the room, the four were greeted to the sigh of a large amount of food on the table, with Kushina, and Mito waiting.

The meal itself was fairly quiet, but about halfway through was when the conversations started.

"So..." Shikaku's father, who was actually named Shikadai while he turned towards Mito "I hear one of these two have a mind that rivals a Nara's."

Kasumi, to her credit, stayed calm long enough to finish the bit she had in her mouth, before she looked up "Ano... That would be me Nara-sama."

"Just Shikadai if you would, I'm not much towards formalities." The elder Nara stated with a lazy grin, that made Kasumi absentmindedly think about how Shikaku had the same grin.

The younger Uzumaki gave a polite nod, before she said "I could play a Shogi match with you after dinner if you'd like?"

Shikadai gave a chuckle and a nod, bough Shikaku sent the youngest girl in the room a slightly exasperated look. Kasumi, in response, just gave the Nara a smile, and a roll of her eyes. The banter between the two of them wasn't lost on Mito and Shikadai, though Shikaku's mother, Ami was her name, notice it as well, and gave a silent chuckle in response.

Dinner after that was nice for everyone, between conversations involving the village between the adults, Kushina interrogating Shikaku, which embarrassed Kasumi, and just some casual conversation, dinner was nice. Every Uzumaki dinner that Kasumi remembered from Uzushio was loud, boisterous, and down right tiring, so a nice almost peaceful dinner was new for Kasumi. She was just so used to the loud personalities that Mito, when she didn't have guests. and Kushina, who was basically always loud. The quiet personalities of Ami, Shikadai, and Shikaku was completely foreign to her.

After the meal was finished, Kasumi actually rushed off to find the Shogi board and she brought it to the table quickly, something that was abnormal compared to how she usually was. The almost giddy look that Kasumi had at the prospect of facing someone as skilled as Shikadai, disappeared, and was replaced by a blush, with the Uzumaki looking down in embarrassment. Mito let out a boisterous laugh as she ruffled the girls head, while the Nara's gave amused looks in response.

The match that took place, however, was completely different, and something that everyone, except Kushina, got into immensely. The only reason Kushina didn't get into it was, as stated many times before, she wasn't an intellectual like Kasumi was. All of the different moves just looked like a boring game to her. She would have just overpowered her enemies, which was one reason why she didn't care much for Shogi.

Kasumi, on the other hand, had it so that her eyes were literally a blur of movement. Shikadai wasn't as fast with his eye movements, but more along the lines of taking the whole board in as a whole. The girl was good, that much Shikadai would admit, but he was better obviously. In few years though, she could very well outclass him. At least, after she had some real fighting experience. She no doubt knew the harshness this world had to offer, but even if she did, she would need real world experience before anything could be said.

Smirking internally, Shikadai placed a commander in an place that Kasumi could easily take, but when she didn't take it, his smirk appeared on his face. Even he had to admit that was an obvious trap that he pulled, but despite this it only took four more moves before Shikadai had won.

Kasumi scowled in response, but she conceded "I knew I wouldn't win, but I expected a better result before I lost."

Shikadai gave a laugh at the small girls expression, before he said "You did well despite this you know. I can tell you'll be a great addition to whatever division you decide after you become Chunin."

Kasumi gave a distracted nod, as her Violet eyes raced over the board in front of her looking over everything, and analyzing the moves she could have done differently to have had a better chance. With a single snap of her eyes, she gave a nod, and stood up "Thank you for the game Shikadai-san, but I have some things I need to work on now. I hope you have a nice evening."

Kasumi gave a small bow, before she rushed off, her Shogi board in hand, towards her room. Along the way she grabbed a small bean-bun that Mito had made, before continuing on her way.

Mito gave a heavy sigh when she saw Kasumi's look "Oh boy. She's in one of those moods again. I'll get the guest bedroom ready Kushina."

Kushina gave a groan when she realized it as well. Turning towards the confused Nara's Kushina said "Kasumi has been trying to invent things recently. She hasn't actually managed to make anything yet, but when she gets that far in her Fūinjutsu studies... I think I may need to get a permanent room separate from hers."

Shikaku raised an eyebrow at that "What? Does she blow things up?"

Mito shook her head with weary eyes "No, she mutters to herself. But, you know what they say. The line between being a genius and being insane is as thin as string."

Shikadai gave a laugh at that "So you have a borderline insane girl who likes to invent things? What have you gotten yourself into Shikaku."

Shikaku shrugged a bit "I'll figure that out when we're old enough to date."

That single comment was all it took for Ami to cry out about how her little boy wasn't going to date until he was 18. Shikaku grumbled on the way home because of that, but it was enough to get a laugh from Kasumi's family, something the Nara actually wanted. He had actually planned things out to a degree most wouldn't, and he figured with the way Kasumi was developing, he would end up in the position he wanted in the future, with Kasumi beside him.

To bad that bad wouldn't come soon enough. Troublesome mothers and their dotting.

* * *

**So? Did you guys like this chapter as well? Oh I hope you did, because, I'm writing the next chapter as you read this! It's pretty much come down to me updating whenever I finish a chapter, so the updating will be spastic with consistency.**

**With that in mind, let's get to the usual questions:**

**What did you think Mito's response to Kasumi's 'self study'?**

**What did you think of my explanation for the standard Bushin not working with Uzumaki's?**

**Did the mental growth of Shikaku and Kasumi being even seem real?**

**What did you think of the banter at the beginning and the end between the Uzumaki siblings?**

**What about Kasumi's 'We are Uzumaki, We are chaos' thing?**

**What about the match between Shikadai and Kasumi?**

**Finally, what did you think about Kasumi's 'inventive streak' as it was so aptly put?**

**Well, that's that. I've got no more questions, so till next time, I'm out!**


	7. Opinions, and confessions

**Well, hello! I'm back with another chapter!**

**Honestly, I received a lot of good feedback from reviews this time around, so I'm thanking everyone who reviewed for the last chapter. That would be Kani-Leek-lover, Llyrica, InazumaSenshi, belladu57, and SiegZeon. Thank you all for the support involving this story!**

**There is also the followers thing here. I want to thank you guys as well. This includes a whopping 47 followers! Here they are Acerblazer, Amyb11, Arianna La Fay, Darkjaden, Doom of hounds, Eldeweiss, Evil E. Evil, Fauxlupin, FlamingBull, GreenTeaAndPocky, Hellfire000, HolyCheesus, InazumaSenshi, Kittymeow25, Littlebirdd, Meow Muse, Nube2013, Red-eyed Snow Leopard, Regin, Rigoudon3, Rookie-Cat, Ruri7533, Torat134, Tory476, WishingWanderer, XxLittleMissSweetnessxX, Adamkevin23, blackvampcat92, blitz129, bookimp, bouff2, edible wallpaper, fanfiction2010, gmilena123, Isabella vera, kara reader, kountoall, mishuu, moonligh, nana82201 native-x, sailorhime, setsunaxx, tarynfire, tinyNecile, waraa, and yuki kagoshima.**

**Whoa, that was a mouthful. Anyway, let's get onto the reviews.**

**Kani-leek-lover: No problem! Seriously, you deserve the compliment. So few people take the time to review anymore. Also, I understand how school work can be... So no worries there.**

**1): Glad that worked out. Personalities of cannon characters are troublesome as it's hard for me to get it exactly right sometimes. Either way, I'll take the experimentation with seals into mind, but trust me when I say that I'm going to try and keep a realistic view on progress with the genin, as I know that all of them hit Jōnin before even one of them died. Even Kushina hit Jōnin by what the wiki page says.**

**2): Heh, it'd be like me trying to thread a needle. I absolutely suck at it, and I have to get my sister, or mother to help me.**

**3): Meh. I don't know how well that will work honestly. Kasumi's personality is explained a bit in this chapter, and her personality just doesn't allow for it sometimes...**

**4): Good to know, as even if their personalities couldn't be more different, they are still siblings and they need to get along to some degree. They are all they have left of the clan besides Mito after all.**

**5): Then you take into consideration that Kushina was violent in her Academy days, and the first meeting she had with Naruto... Yeah, Chaos follows the Uzumaki clan no matter where they go.**

**6): Thanks! I honestly think that this chapter should completely cement the relationship between Kasumi and Shikaku. Honestly, I'm just curious about some other things at this point, like if Shikamaru should be unchanged appearance wise, or if he should gain Kasumi's eye color...**

**Llyrica: no problem. I'm happy you reviewed!**

**-): yeah, that's what I was getting at. No matter what, you shouldn't hold a child back from their potential. The training afterwards was actually part of the punishment as well just so you know.**

**-): well, that's good :). I was a bit worried that it wouldn't work so well. I am trying to be at least a bit realistic.**

**-): That's good at least. Also, take into consideration what type of clan the Nara clan is. It's known for their mental Genius's so being that far ahead when surrounded by the same type of people isn't out of the scope of reality. But again, like you stated, this is a story, and Naruto. I can bend the spectrum a bit, so long as it's not ridiculous.**

**-): the banter being well done is good enough for me. Need it with siblings after all.**

**-): it does add humor, then you take into the fact that's it's true, and there you go. We have a huge chaotic brew due to a couple of Uzumaki.**

**-): That right there is what I was trying to get at in this case! It's such a realistic thing in this case that, I was hoping someone would spot it! Thank you for spotting that, and I hope you like what happens in this chapter. It was a bit of a spur of the moment thing, but who knows?**

**-): Ah, yes. Well, on the bright side, she doesn't blow things up does she? It would be a lot worse if she blew things up in the process. And with inventing things she can learn wiser as well, also don't be sorry about the length. I enjoy long reviews as they help me know how specific things went.**

**InazumaSenshi: well that's for me to know, and you to find out. As for the detail with other characters emotions, I'll try, but I don't know how well that will work, so I can't promise anything. I will try though.**

**Belladu57: thanks! I hope you can be a bit more extensive in your review next time, but none the less, thank you.**

**SeigZeon: glad you like it, but could you be a bit more extensive with your review when you get the time? I want to know if there are things I can do to improve, and you doing that could help me a lot, so please keep that in mind.**

**There we go! Now to the disclaimer.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except for Kasumi, and non-cannon events. Please support the original creator of Naruto.**

* * *

It took another two years before things turned away from what became a normal routine for the little group at the Academy. The little group consisting of Kushina, Mikoto, Minato, Shikaku, Kasumi, Inoichi, and Choza. Of course with Kushina Mikoto and Minato, those three were closer than the other four were but the group was a part of the same circle in any case. Currently, however, Kasumi watched with an almost blank look right beside Shikaku as Kushina and Mikto beat the crap out of each other. The reason was simply because Mikoto, no matter how subtly, insulted ramen in Kushina's presence.

Petty? Yes, but then again this was kushina's favorite food we're talking about. If someone insulted Manju in front of Kasumi, the same thing would have happened, except it would have been an elaborate prank that would have let the one who insulted Manju in an extremely embarrassed.

Kasumi was not spared in terms of the Uzumaki's prank drive.

Hearing the two yell once again, Kasumi, the normally quiet one, finally snapped as she yelled "Knock it off you two dattebate!"

With that yell, she gained the two fighting Kunoichi in training's attention, and with a glare, her wild hair, that was slowly beginning to turn completely red over the years, sticking up due to her agitated chakra pathways. With her glare still in place, the young girl gave a satisfied nod, as she said "Now that I actually have your attention, I want you both to stop. If you keep going you're both going to end up using Ninjutsu, and if that happens you'll both get into trouble with said teachers, and thus you're going to end up on the receiving end of Mito-obachan's punishment. We wouldn't want that, now would we?"

No matter how many compliments were given about Mito, there was one thing you everyone in the village knew, and that was her punishment. Just the mention of them was just like two years ago when Kasumi had chased after Kushina and ended up talking to Minato at one point. The instant the punishment was brought up, Mikoto and Kushina both quit arguing, and the boys that were watching this were slightly surprised at how effective it was.

"Is her punishment really that bad?" Minato asked with a serious look on his face, though there was a hint of confusion in it as well.

Shikaku let out a snorting laugh at that, half due to the fact he had tried to take a drink of water before he asked that, and half because of how ridiculous Minato's question was "Are her punishments that bad? If Kushina of all people is afraid of what's to come, shouldn't that be enough of an answer?"

Minato's eyes widened for a brief moment in thought. Kushina was headstrong and very rarely did she get scared about anything that was inside of the village, one of those things being Mito-sama's punishment apparently. If Kushina was actually scared of what could happen, then there was just reason to be afraid of whatever the hell it was that scared the older Uzumaki.

Shivering at that thought, Choza gave a laugh in between bits of his chips "Kasumi's even afraid of whatever Mito-sama does to dish out punishment. I seriously don't want to be on the receiving end of it."

Inoichi gave a laugh as well "I really wouldn't want to be either of those two if Mito-sama decided to actually give out a punishment. From what I've heard she doesn't anger all that quickly."

A sudden snort caused all of the boys to look over towards Kasumi who had an amused look on her face. Kushina and Mikoto were right behind her as she walked towards them, but she did say "Oh, Mito-obachan is extremely quick to anger. The thing is, she doesn't like to give out punishment unless absolutely necessary. Most of the time we just get an earful from her. She's really good at making you feel bad about what you did with her words."

Shikaku gave an amused, lazy, smirk as he nodded "That sounds about right. The troublesome woman she is would much rather give an earful to any troublemaker than normally punishing them like most parents would."

Kasumi gave a small laugh, as she said "Just don't let her hear you saying that Shikaku-san. Wouldn't want her fury to come down on you, now would we?"

Shikaku's smirk disappeared at that comment, while he just sat there for a few seconds. His expression quickly grew into a scrunched up look as he shivered from where his thought processes ment. With a look towards Kasumi he simply stated "I'm never saying that to her face. Ever."

Kasumi let out a laugh, while the Nara heir's friends gave him an amused look as well. Kushina rolled her eyes in exasperation, while Mikoto just shook her head.

The Uchiha matriarch-to-be was confused about Kasumi when she first met her, but as she got to know the younger Uzumaki, she couldn't say that she regretted ever meeting Kasumi. She had a Charisma to her that was similar to Kushina's, and that made it fairly easy for the sisters to befriend her. She wasn't going to be anything like her clan by the time she graduated, and that was both Uzumaki's faults. It wasn't necessarily a big problem though. She didn't want to be stuck up like the rest of her clan now that she could see them with clear eyes.

The Uchiha was confused however. This mainly stemmed from the fact that the two sisters, who were looking more and more like each other every day, even if Kasumi had a harder jawline than Kushina, and that the older Uzumaki tended to have longer hair, were nothing alike in personality. Kushina was loud and boisterous, while Kasumi was quiet and introverted at times. Kushina wore her heart on her sleeve, while Kasumi looked at everything with a hint of suspicion. It was almost like it was a mental tick that the two gained from when they came to Konoha. Even Mikoto knew about what happened to Uzushio.

Her honest opinion on the sisters were that they complimented each other. Even if Kushina was the first friend the Uchiha managed to have, with any sense of the word, Kasumi wormed her way into the Uchiha's heart just as quickly. She wasn't innocent, for from it actually, but she had a resolve to get better mainly due to wanting to protect everything that was important to her, most likely stemming from what happened to Uzushio. She had to be honest though, Kasumi and Kushina were two of her closest friends, and she wouldn't change anything from the way it is.

With that thought process ended, Mikoto gave a frown as she remembered something her father was talking about. WIth a call to the rest of her friends to gain their attention, Mikoto said "I heard from my father that they may be pushing for the right to lower the graduation age. War hasn't been officially declared between Konoha, and the three nations that attacked Uzushio, but with the way things are going it will be official in close to a year."

Kasumi, who actually had a smile on her face, scowled at that "So what? They want to make a bunch of Genin cannon fodder? That's one of the worst things they would do."

Shikaku shared the scowl as he said "One little twist of the truth, and a little bribe here, and it will be like everyone who is graduating has become a bit of a genius."

Minato frowned at that "I don't think they should do something like that no matter what the situation, they shouldn't need to put children out just to make a point."

Kushina let out a small growl of anger "What the hell type of government do we live under?"

Kasumi put a comforting hand onto Kushina's shoulder as she said "I don't like it any more than any of you, but its the hard truth. But that's what we're here for. To make sure something like this never happens again."

Kasumi put a hand into the center of their small group, a small smirk playing on her face "Here's a promise to make sure that they won't send kids to the frontline after our generation."

Mikoto gave a small laugh, but she put her hand on top of Kasumi's "I'll promise that as well, I don't want to see kids being sent to die when i'm in my twenties or thirties."

Shikaku gave a lazy groan,but none the less put his hand on the pile "I'll agree with that. I don't want any kid of mine to end up in that situation either."

Kushina gave a laugh yell of agreement as she put her hand on the pile "Of course I'm going to agree Dattebane! I don't want anything like this to happen even now! When I become the first female hokage i'll make sure of that!"

Minato let out a soft laugh, as he put his hand on as well "I'm going to aim for Hokage to you know, and I'll make sure that nothing like this happens either."

Inoichi gave a smile as he put his hand on the pile "Its not like I have much choice do I? Mind you I would have agreed anyway."

Choza, who was last one to put his hand on the pile, gave a grunt when he did so "I don't like the idea of them sending anyone our age to the front line, so I'll agree no matter what! LETS KICK SOME ASS!"

Everyone burst into hysterical laughter of their own sorts with Choza's outburst, but it was good natured laughing. Choza knew that no one meant anything by it, but he still blushed over the fact that he yelled. Choza, while normally quiet, could be loud when someone called him fat, or he got really excited about anything.

Choza was another one of the people in their circle of friends that thought Kasumi was odd. While she wasn't as loud as Kushina, no one was as loud as her, she wasn't shy either. Instead she set off a more cautious vice than Kushina, yet still had that charismatic quality that they both seemed to share. She was just so easy to get along with. It helped that she didn't pick on him about his eating habits, or weight. In fact she didn't go anywhere near those subjects, something that the Akimichi was extremely happy about.

The friendship actually started when Kasumi, unknowingly, did something that all Akimichi cherished. She shared one of her Manju with him only later did he find out that if Kasumi of all people was willing to let one of her Manju go, it meant that she wanted to be a friend to whoever she gave it to. Akimichi had the same process, but it was oriented towards all food, not just the person's favorite. Still, the simple thought of Kasumi giving him one of her Manju was enough to boister a relationship with the two.

Inoichi, on the other hand, had a difficult time becoming Kasumi's friend. She apologized for it later, but she had stated that she read about the Yamanaka's, and she was afraid that he would try to get into her head. It was that right there that solidified her paranoia. Inoichi was the reason for that simple fact to be found out, but once it was found out, Kushina stated that Kasumi used to be carefree, even if she was quiet, but after Uzu, she began to be a bit more quiet. Inoichi was curious about what had happened, but he didn't push it.

That actually help him become the friend of the younger Uzumaki faster than if he had actually asked. The main reason was basically because of Kasumi's slight paranoia. If Inoichi had asked what happened, than the younger Uzumaki would very well have never opened to the blonde. That one simple fact was all it took for Kasumi to open up to the Yamanaka a bit more. When Kasumi and Kushina actually answered the questions about Uzushio... It actually changed their perspective on all of them. Kushina was loud because it was how her family used to be back in Uzushio, and it ended up as a personality quirk. Kasumi, on the other hand, became the way she was because she was afraid she would be judged as a monster, just as Kumo, Iwa, and Kiri had labeled the Uzumaki when they attacked their clan.

That moment was the moment when they had seen just how tired, and worried to two were, and they weren't even adults yet! The fact that the two of them could very well be the last living, breathing, Uzumaki in the world... That was a lot of pressure on two girls that no one would want. They just kept pressing through though, as Kushina said that her family wouldn't want her sulking about and not doing anything with her life. Kasumi, on the other hand, said that she would keep moving forwards so that she could be strong enough to protect those important to her. She continued on with that when she stated that her group of friends in front of her were her precious people, and she would do whatever she would to protect them.

With their little bonding moment over, Kasumi noted that the bell for their break to end had sounded, and begrudgingly, everyone went towards the school building to go back to their classes. The whole time though, Kasumi was thinking over the plans for a seal that she had to decipher by herself. The only thing she knew about the seal was its shape, the rest she had to figure out herself, like the interlocking layers, and the different tiers. This one was a three tier seal that she had activated with Kage Bushin, something that took her three months to get down after gaining it a year ago, and man was she glad she did. The seal ,when she activated it electrified the seal, but the seal remained in tact. She was extremely confused about it, but she was determined to get it.

When the bell for the final class rang, Kasumi stretched her limbs a bit, before closing the scroll that held her research seal on it. She could deal with the seal later. Right now she had an Impromptu meeting with Shikaku up on a hill that was a good distance from the Nara compound, but close enough to the Senju compound that she could easily get home so long as she had the upper hand with terrain. The younger Uzumaki made sure to let her sister know that she would be home late, as a way to let Mito know about what was going on, but knowing Mito she would play it off like she forgot to tease Kasumi.

With her newest book in hand, this one titled 'The tale of the utterly gutsy Shinobi' Kasumi was happy to see Shikaku already laying on their normal hill, his eyes closed. Kasumi gave a soft smile at the Nara heir, as she sat next to him, her book open in this case. This was normal as well. They didn't need to talk to each other to make each other happy, and or smile. They just really enjoyed each others company in that case. With a smile Kasumi closed her book for a second and asked "Do you want to hear me sing Shikaku? I honestly never tried before..."

Ok that was her bullshitting him, but would he know? She hoped he didn't. The only time she had ever sang was when she was in the bath by herself, as she was too embarrassed to try and sing in front of others. In her honest opinion, she wanted to get the opinion of someone she was sure would be honest about how she sang. Shikaku as the only one to come to mind, and it helped that she knew he wouldn't be harsh on her.

Shikaku opened a lazy eye at her, fore he gave a groan while he sat up "That's a lie, but sure why not."

Kasumi gave a nervous chuckle at that, before she hesitantly took a deep breath and began.

_Da-dah-da-da-da-da-da_

_Da-dah-da-da-da-da-da_

_Da-dah-da-da-da-da-da_

_Da-da-da-da-da_

_Da-dah-da-da-da-da-da_

_Da-dah-da-da-da-da-da_

_Da-dah-da-da-da-da-da_

_Da-da-da-da-da_

_Let's take a trip, back to the start_

_When I was sitting all alone with half a heart_

_I was wasting, a-wasting, a-wasting, a-wasting_

_My time_

_You walked up to me and asked for my name_

_Now every little thing for me has changed_

_I've been waiting, a-waiting, a-waiting, a-waiting_

_For you_

_The lu~ck in lo~ve, has always let me down~_

_I'm go~nna turn it aro~und_

_'Cause you, you make me smi~le_

_You make me smi~le_

_With your loving style_

_And I hope, that you'll be mi~ne_

_For a whi~le_

_With your loving style_

_Da-dah-da-da-da-da-da_

_Da-dah-da-da-da-da-da_

_Da-dah-da-da-da-da-da_

_Da-da-da-da-da_

_Holy moly, I'm living the dream_

_You and I make a damn good team_

_And I'm falling, we're falling, we're falling_

_Like the rain_

_We can run away from the city life_

_Where we get to I don't mind_

_'Cause I'm happy, I'm happy, I'm happy_

_Once again_

_But wha~t if you~ should run out of roma~nce?_

_I'm go~nna give it a cha~nce_

_'Cause you, you make me smi~le_

_You make me smi~le_

_With your loving style_

_And I hope, that you'll be mi~ne_

_For a whi~le_

_With your loving style_

_Da-dah-da-da-da-da-da_

_Da-dah-da-da-da-da-da_

_Da-dah-da-da-da-da-da_

_Da-da-da-da-da_

_Even though your love is pure and sweet_

_I can't wait to get you under the sheets_

_When the day is done, we'll stop and we'll finally_

_Get it o-o-on_

_Ooooh-oooh_

_'Cause you, you make me smile_

_You make me smile_

_With your loving style_

_And I hope, that you'll be mine_

_For a while_

_With your loving style_

_Da-dah-da-da-da-da-da_

_Da-dah-da-da-da-da-da_

_Da-dah-da-da-da-da-da_

_Da-da-da-da-da_

_The sun began to rise when you came my way_

_You fell out of the sky and you made my day_

_As long as you can tell me that you're going to stay_

_I will keep smiling_

_The sun began to rise when you came my way_

_You fell out of the sky and you made my day_

_As long as you can tell me that you're going to stay_

_I will keep smiling_

_The sun began to rise when you came my way_

_You fell out of the sky and you made my day_

_As long as you can tell me that you're going to stay_

_I will keep smiling_

_The sun began to rise when you came my way_

_You fell out of the sky and you made my day_

_As long as you can tell me that you're going to stay_

_I will keep smiling._

Kasumi looked back towards Shikaku with a red face after finished, mainly because of the little explicit part that was stuck in there despite their ages. When she saw his expression, on the other hand, she choked back a laugh. Shikaku had a surprised look on his face. When registered that he was being laughed at, he cleared his throat awkwardly, and asked "Where did you hear that song?"

Kasumi, guessing that songs like that weren't real in this world, gave a sly look towards Shikaku before she said "What if I told you that I wrote it?"

Shikaku gave her a slight glare, as he said "I wouldn't believe you. What are you hiding Kasumi?"

Kasumi wanted the song to express how she felt towards Shikaku, but it left more questions for the Nara instead. With a slight flinch, Kasumi looked towards her best friend, and maybe even more than that, and said "If I told you, would you believe me? I mean, can you honestly say that if I told you something outrageous that you would believe me?"

Shikaku took a couple of steps forwards as he looked into her Violet eyes, his dark ones reflecting with a gleam "Yes, I would. I can honestly say this Kasumi. I think... *sigh* Mendokusē... I think I love you. Physically, I don't think either of us are ready for that type of commitment. Emotionally... That's up to you. So why don't you tell me whatever it is that you've been keeping a secret from me."

Kasumi gave a small smile towards Shikaku as she said "Sit down, this is going to be a long story..."

* * *

**So? Did you guys like this chapter?**

**Ok, I put a few 'spur of the moment' things in here to see how things went, so I hope for some feedback involving that. Also, next chapter we go in more depth with Kasumi's past as Julie, (for those of you who paid attention at the beginning) so be prepared for that. Anyway, on to questions.**

**Did you like e little scene at the beginning with Mikoto and Kushina?**

**What is your idea for Mito's punishment?**

**Did the promise between the group seem like a good idea?**

**What did you think of everyone's opinion of Kasumi?**

**What do you think of Kasumi's personality?**

**Did I do the right thing with the song in this story?**

**Can you guess the name of the song?**

**What do you think Shikaku will do once the story of how she lived before is finished?**

**Please answer these questions, and thank you everyone who reviews, no matter how small!**


	8. The past

**Hello~! I'm back with another chapter!**

**Ok, this chapter is another test type thing, as I'm trying to get a feel as to how you guys respond to certain things in story's. I didn't get a lot of feedback when it came to the song in the story, but that's ok. It really just means that not to many people disliked, it but the same could be said for people liking it. It's a mix up with that, and it's alright.**

**Continuing, I'm curious as to if someone would ever do one of those 'Reading of' stories with this, in the sense of the original cast reading this... It doesn't have to happen, but I'd like to see what someone would think of in that sense. Maybe even having Naruto involved so he can comment on his parents. Heck, you do the next generation for all I care, I'm really just curious. If you have an idea for is, if you want to try it, then please PM me, and I'll give you a chance to do it. I really don't mind if multiple people do it, so long as the credit is sent my way, since this is my story and all. Either way, just wanted to state this,**

**Moving on, I'm happy to say, this story has made it into a community! It's run by a favorited Eldeweiss, and it's called 'The butterfly effect' for those curious. There are actually a lot of nice stories on the community, so there's that tidbit of info for you.**

**Getting to review's now, so here we go**

**Llyrica: No problem, I'm happy you like the story. Like I said before, however, Mito gives them an earful most of the time, but her form of punishment is cruel in even my opinion. It's a combination of Etiquette training, to where if they do something wrong, they get a bruise. Most Uzumaki, in my opinion, train by doing, not reading, so that's my answer.**

**Glad that worked out well, as well. The group was meant to encourage them to do what is best for the future, though the impact of actual war hasn't hit them just yet, it will soon.**

**Inoichi was a bit harder for me, but I'm glad it worked out well, as, to answer your next response as well, Kasumi is the most complex character I've ever thought out. She isn't an open book, and she's not to dramatic with emotions like most characters in a story. She's like a rubic's cube that is almost impossible to solve, to put it that way.**

**With the music... Glad that worked well, it was just an experiment after all, so glad to see it worked correctly. With Shikaku however, he's smart enough to not do anything stupid. This chapter is evidence of that, so don't worry.**

**Angel4EverLostInLife: well here you go! I'm happy to know you like this story.**

**InazumaSenshi: Yep! And I bet all of you are wondering what he's going to do. You'll find out in this chapter though so look forward to that.**

**Kani-leek-lover: heh! That part, honestly, was a bit hard for me to keep in character, as I needed to make it a little awkward, he confessed to her after all, so I'm glad it worked.**

**1): Tha is exactly what I'm seeing. I actually made Shikaku a bit younger then he should have been, which is part of the reason that you won't see some of the other clan kids, like Tsume, till after they graduate. Once that happens, trust me, you'll be seeing them a lot more. Hiashi, and Hizashi as well.**

**2): I might not have gotten the point that I wanted across... They didn't know what was going to happen, yes, but they were in the midst of friends, and they didn't want the others to worry. Not to mention the weight of war hasn't hit them yet, even if Kasumi has a great mind, even she doesn't know what war is like, as she wasn't in Uzushio when the fighting broke out, except for the fallen wall. Hope this explained things a bit.**

**3): Well...Mito gives them an earful most of the time, but her form of punishment is cruel in even my opinion. It's a combination of Etiquette training, to where if they do something wrong, they get a bruise. Most Uzumaki, in my opinion, train by doing, not reading, so that's my answer with that, but with that type of training, they have to sit still and look formal. Even Kasumi has trouble with sitting still, due to her temper. She has a temper. Doesn't matter if she's quiet or not.**

**4): Exactly. Have you seen an Uzumaki, besides Nagato, who doesn't have a temper? Kushina, Karin, Naruto. Those three have bad tempers, and Bolt, from the new generation, has just as bad of a temper. All Uzumaki have tempers, it doesn't matter what their personality is.**

**5): The music was the trigger for her talking to Shikaku when it came to how she knew about it. Shikaku, no matter his age, is crafty, and he realized that someone was up with her, so yeah...**

**6): You have a point with Shikaku, but like I've stated before, you'll have to read to find out. This is a test for this style of writing as well, so yeah... Though I do agree with you about Shikamaru not changing. He is perfect the way he is, and I honestly wouldn't change anything, as he does look like a mini Shikaku.**

**FlourSuoh: well here it is! I hope you like this chapter as much as the last.**

**Almathia: Thanks for that. I like how they are developing as well, and sometimes it seems like things are moving on their own, with me having no control on what happens. Either way, here's the next update, and I hope you enjoy this as much as I do.**

**Well, that's that. Let's get to the chapter then!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing, except for any Non-cannon events, and OC's.**

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With a sigh, Kasumi looked towards Shikaku and began her little "story".

_The thing with people is that they're willing to believe anything. If it doesn't make sense, their mind twists the reality, and either makes it a story, or make it into something that does make sense. The few people who see things for what they really are, are considered Crazy, people are locked away. They say it's for their own good, but is it really? The insane can't be cured is another speculation, is that true as well? No it isn't._

_The human mind is wired to believe that if it isn't normal to you, it should be destroyed or rejected. Religion is the biggest cause of this. Atheists will tell you that there is no such thing as God, and that everything can be explained through science in one way or another. People who have a religion with a God, tell you that everything was created by a single being, or beings._

_Then what about people who believe in nothing? Those people who believe everything religion or not, is full of it? When I died, I didn't expect what I got. Growing up, I was considered... Odd. I didn't think of anything as true, or real. I just did what I believed was morally right, not caring about the opinions of anyone. My parents, being Catholic, didn't much care about my thought process. They tried to change me, assimilate me into their society. I didn't bend or break_.

Shikaku raised an eyebrow "Catholic? Is that a type of religion from your world?"

Kasumi nodded her head solemnly "It's an extremely struck religion in comparison to some others. I never really cared for it as it didn't feel morally right to me."

The Nara gave a quick nod, a contemplative look on his face, to which Kasumi took this chance to continue.

_When that didn't work, I was sent to a military school. I got into trouble so many times for getting into fights to protect someone else. I got detention every day for three weeks due to the fights I got into with bullies. The teachers did not condone fighting, as they said, but they didn't do anything to the bullies either. Society was flawed in my view, and that didn't change no matter what the teachers tried filling into my head._

The Nara boy in front of her cuckled at that "Glad to know that you haven't changed all that much."

"I've changed more then you realize Shikaku." Kasumi stated, a soft look in her eyes "For better or worse, I am the way I am now becuase of what I remember."

_When I got into high school, my grades were a steady B average. I didn't care about my grades all that much, but I figure If I wanted to get into any good occupation in the near future, I needed to have good grades. I wish I would have known how pointless it was in honesty. The reason for this was because my parents died in a car crash. I didn't know what to do after they died, but my Aunt and Uncle were my closest immediate family, and they both somehow thought this was my fault._

Shikaku frowned "We're they stupid? I don't know what a car is, but even I know that if it was an accident, why would it be your fault?"

"My Aunt and Uncle were what society called 'book thumpers'. They stuck to what the religious book, the bible in this case, said literally, and anything else was considered being a heretic." Kasumi stated with a sigh "As for a car, it's like a carriage, four wheels, but it runs on a fuel instead of horses like this world."

Shikaku gained a contemplative look, but he gave a small thoughtful nod.

_With a grimace I got out of my bed in the attic. It didn't matter to them where I lived, or how crazy the whole world seemed, I just wanted to get out and explore no matter what my dearest, note the sarcasm. aunt and uncle wanted to keep me inside. To them I was abnormal, my thoughts bordering Satanism to them. Since you don't really understand what that it, its the worship of the devil. Not going into details, as I am not one._

_Getting back on track, however, I only really had one thing that I could consider mine, and that was a locket that my mother had before she died in that car crash along with my Father. I was told they were hit by a drunk driver, but honestly, I didn't believe them. For one, if I understood correctly when I was younger, my parents were the Owner's of a small company thought could have made it big easily. They had revolutionary thoughts that capitalists didn't like, and then there was the fact that they managed to piss of a really big company when they refused to sell the rights to their company to them._

_Needless to say they were not happy whatsoever, and my parents had ended up making a multi-billion dollar company angry with them. Child or not, I knew that something bad was going to happen to someone in the family, I just didn't expect it to be mom and dad_.

"Even then you were smart Kasumi. It seems you haven't changed all that much." Shikaku stated, though there was a lazy smirk, to which Kasumi gave a smile towards the Nara.

_My aspiration for my mundane life, however, had to be becoming a writing. My creative, almost to mature, mind was what led me to this, and I always dreamed of worlds full of Ninja, and Samurai, the two fighting each other for glory, money, or sometimes land. I knew that something like that was hundreds, if not thousands, of years old, and I didn't really care to be honest. It was something that I always liked about creativity. one of my favorite quotes did say that creativity was just intelligence having fun._

Shikaku actually let out a laugh at that "Now that is a quote that I like. It has a ring to it."

"I have more if you want to hear them later." Kasumi stated with a lazy drawl in turn, though a smirk played on her lips.

Shikaku gave her a smirk as well "I'd like that."

_My dearest Aunt and Uncle on the other hand didn't see it that way. They instead saw it as me being rebellious to the way things were supposed to be in the world, and they tore my room up searching for the rough draft of my first story. Fortunately for me, I didn't keep them in my room. Instead I kept them at school. One of the first times I was glad I had a school that went year round with keeping our stuff in place._

Shikaku chuckled once again "Smart girl."

Kasumi gave another smirk towards the Nara.

_Didn't matter if it was a military school or not, they didn't go through our personal stuff unless they thought you had drugs or something else along those lines on you, and I wasn't stupid enough to get caught with something like that. Thankfully for me, however, I had a room to myself due to such cases. Every roommate I got had some connection to drugs or alcohol. They were quickly set to a different part of the school to keep them away from one of their more well behaved students, something that I was happy to hear._

_It didn't matter that I got into fights a lot, the teachers only cared if I back talked them. I was not stupid thank you very much! I knew what happened when you talked back to a teacher, but if you did it while you were in a military school? I didn't even want to think about it to be honest. The thoughts alone send shivers down my spine, something that I really don't like._

_Rolling off of my bed once again, I heaved a sigh once again as I started to pace in my 'room' with lights steps. This was something that actually calmed me down at times. If I started to practice keeping my movements silent I would completely forget about whatever I had started to think about before, and let me tell you that its a good thing. I have a very short temper, and no matter how nice I was, or quiet for that matter, I would snap if you did something to set me off. Needless to say, I was really good at knowing when to pick fights._

"That's not a good thing Kasumi." Shikaku stated with a frown.

Kasumi gave a sigh "I know Shikaku. I've got a better reign on my temper now, but I'm still not sure how well I'll do in the future until I get out under pressure."

Shikaku ran a hand through his hair as he sighed, but gave a nod, conceding to what she had said, as much as he didn't want to admit it.

_Teachers don't see it, they don't ask, and don't care for that matter, even if the evidence was right on some kids face. Can't hide a black eye very well after all._

_All at once I stopped pacing, however, when I heard some thudding footsteps coming up the door. With a scowl I realized that my whale, pun intended, of an Uncle was walking up the stairs. The man could do well to lose a few tons, I mean seriously. he could barely fit in the door to his car, which was a small little volkswagen beetle of all things, and yet he still at enough for seven men by himself._

Before Shikaku could asked, Kasumi said "A really small car. Somthing about the size of a one person carriage."

Shikaku's eyes widened a bit "... How big did you say your uncle was?"

Kasumi let out a snorting laugh at that, before she said "I said he was like a whale."

If possible, the Nara boys eyes widened even more "...How?"

"Don't ask. You don't want to know." Kasumi stated before she continued.

_People like him really disgusted me. It didn't matter if I was related to him or not, he was a lob, and I didn't even want to be called family to that whale. I was seriously going to change my last name from danielson to something a lot more me, like Tori. I knew that meant bird in a different language, no matter how little I knew of the language, and the Irony was not lost on me when I thought it over. I was pretty much a caged bird right now after all. I was hoping and praying to be able to spread my wings and fly one day so that I could do whatever I wanted without interference from people who hated me._

Shikaku's frown grew when he heard that, but he didn't say anything. This was an eye opener though. To think that she had such a hard time before, and then she had to go through even more... She was a strong woman. It didn't matter what her body looked like, she was a woman, and Shikaku wouldn't think otherwise.

_With a my scowl turning into a more blank look when my Uncle opened the door to the attic, I watched as the heavy man squeezed himself through the doorway in the floor. His meaty palms were sweaty from just a little climb up, but if he was willing to come up here to get me, there was either something bad happening to me tonight, or he was going to tell me something I didn't like after he yelled at me. Either way wasn't pleasant, and I wasn't looking forward to whatever was going to happen._

Shikaku's scowled at the new information, but he stayed quiet.

_His chubby cheeks turned into a frown as he yelled "Where the hell have you been you brat!? I was calling you for hours! Now go get your lazy ass down those stairs and make me some dinner!"_

_I simply walked past the fat man, and I scowled when he wasn't looking. I really really hated the man and wished I could just work up the courage to either make him sing soprano with a kick between the legs, or sock him in the jaw to make sure he couldn't talk to me at least for awhile. Or at all if I could run away after doing so as well without getting caught and forced back to this hell hole of a home._

_If I could survive another five years of this crap then I'd be able to make my get away without having to worry about being sent away. I was, after all 13 and I was going to do whatever I can to make sure that I survived to make it out of this home._

_WIth a barely notable sigh, I walked into the kitchen, not even bothering with an apron as they wouldn't give me one anyway, and I started to cook seven things at the same time. I was forced to do this because of the simple fact that if I didn't, then my Uncle dearest wouldn't be able to shove food into his piggish face and then I would have to cook even faster because of his bird like wife._

_When I say bird like, I mean it as well. She was skinny for one, with almost toothpick like legs, and then there was the fact that she tended to puff out her chest to make herself look more important despite the fact that she was shorter than I was at the age of 13. Where I stood at a good 5'3, she stood at a whopping, stay with me here, 4'5! If that didn't cement her birde status to me, she didn't eat nearly as much as person should. she mainly at like one roll and a small piece of meat before she finished eating. I swear the woman was an actual bird somehow. It wouldn't have surprised me all that much all things considered, but I wasn't willing to say such outside of my head._

_Shaking my head quickly, I rushed over to the things that were actually done, and took them out of the places they were cooking, and then put the items on the table where the pig torn into them with gusto that you would only see on a fat man that was a complete pig as well. Turning away as to not lose what little I've actually eaten, I continued to cook what was required, taking small samples of everything to make sure that it was cooked properly, before I put them on the table for the pig to eat._

_I really, and truly, believe that this was why I was even alive at this point. It was because of the fact that I had cooking skills. I was by no means a five star chef, but i knew how to cook enough that a homemade meal was never out of the question. I never got a compliment from the stupid pig either, but thats besides the point. If he did compliment me I would probably die of shock. No, that would just make him right all along. I'd still live just to prove the idiot wrong._

_Never let anyone tell you that I wasn't stubborn, you hear?_

Shikaku let out a smirk at that "Your not so troublesome, but your still as stubborn as your sister."

Kasumi let out a frown "I am not. I at least won't chew your ear off like I'm sure Kushina is going to do to Minato."

Shikaku choked on air for a second in laughter. The sad thing was that it was true. Kushina, no matter what anyone said, would probably end up with Minato, and she would chew his ear off when it came to fights between them, though it would probably be one sided in any case.

_With a fake smile on my face, I put the last of the items on the table before I walked into the kitchen to begin doing to dishes. It didn't matter if the fat bastard was done eating or not, I would clean whatever was in front of me when I was in 'dish mode' as I called it, and my dearest Aunt and Uncle couldn't do anything either as I was doing what they wanted me to do without complaint, though I could have done better clothing wise than what I had on now, which was a pair of light gray pants, and a old beaten up grey T-shirt._

_No originality whatsoever. It killed my Muse to even think about it._

_With a sigh, I remembered that I was going to be going back to the military school once things were done and over with here, but I kept he grin from forming on my face. No need to have Uncle dearest yell at me for something that was natural, he found the stupidest things to yell and complain about, I swear..._

_Getting back on track, that meant that I didn't have to deal with my stupid relatives until I had to come back after a few months. Not like it mattered in my opinion. the dumb fatso was going to stay as such no matter what happened. I was just glad that I could get away from him._

_With a small groan, I walked up to the attic once again, and fell asleep instantly on the stupid broken bed that my relatives had been so 'nice' to give me._

_I had a feeling tomorrow was going to be shit once again anyway._

Kasumi let out a sigh as she finished with what she was saying "That' only a part of what happened. I wish I could tell you more, but that's all I remember... It's getting late anyway, and I don't want to take more of your time."

The Nara heir gave a nod, though there was a contemplative look on his face "Mendokusè... I believe you Kasumi. You've given me something to think on, but I believe you. Also, this wasn't a waste of time of time, if that's what you were thinking."

Kasumi gave a genuine smile towards Shikaku at his comment. With a small, but happy, laugh, Kasumi gave a quick hug to Shikaku, along with another kiss on the cheek, which may or may not have caused said boy to blush. Kasumi gave one more bright smile towards Shikaku, before she ran off, leaving the boy to think over what he had just learned. His whole opinion of the girl changed, but his feelings for her on the other hand, didn't.

He understood why she didn't tell anyone. Who would belive her if she said that she was reborn? If it was anyone else, Shikaku had no doubt he would have been extremely suspicious about what was said. Not only that, but the way Kasumi had explained everything to him like it was ever day knowlage, it was just to much not to be true.

With a groan of 'Mendokusè' Shikaku headed home, a lot of things running through his head. A lot of them involving exactly what had happened to the girl he had somehow ended up falling for, despite their age.

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**So? Did you like this chapter?**

**I hope to get a lot of feedback from you guys, so please Review. Once again, I've stated how I want to have a 'Reading of' story with this if possible, but I won't be put down if it doesn't happen. Just let me know if you want to Via a PM, and I'll give you permission, depending, but I still want recognition for this story, as I will give recognition to you as well. Even trade and all. Either way, till next time as I really don't have any questions for you this time. So come up with some things you liked or not please! I'll be waiting for your responses!**


	9. Development

**Well here we are with chapter 9 of Misty Vortex. I have to say that I've enjoyed all the feedback people have given me, and I'm happy to say that with 25 reviews, 70 followers, 58 favorites, one community, and over three thousand views, that this story is loved, and appreciated. Thank you all for your support, and I am extremely happy to say that this story is such a success. You all are the reason for this. So thank you.**

**For those of you who reviewed, here is a response from me to you.**

**Chi4ngo: I'm glad you liked the last chapter, as I thought I might as well add in some fluff into the mix at one point. As for Shikaku, it was due to not only his open mind, and the fact that Kasumi had no reason to lie to her that he believed her, and learning that she was reincarnated isn't that hard to believe in a world where throwing the elements around like nothing is common.**

**InazumaSenshi: Yes Inazuma-San! Let their flames of youth spread to all around them while in their youthful relationship!**

**Kani-leek-lover: Yep, she finally spills the beans, and she was supposed to be a character to sympathize with. It's a bit cliche to have a character with a bad past, but their is a reason why they are best for character development. With Shikaku, it was, as with Chi4ngo, he has an open mind, and that with the Shinobi world, Reincarnation is small in comparison. Glad you liked that part as well though, and I hadn't planned for the two to get together, but that's just how things are I guess. As for Kushina, and Mito, I'm sorry to say that Mito may very well end up not knowing, but Kushina will eventually. It's just hidden something like that could either make someone like Kushina break down, and get extremely angry, or break down, and sympathize with Kasumi. That's why Kasumi hesitates. Hope this explained some things.**

**Ok! With that out of the way, let's get to the chapter!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except non-cannon events, and characters. Please support the official releases.**

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Kasumi let out a sigh as she realized that she couldn't remember much else except for that one single day. No matter what she did, her memories would lock up. Sure she could remember all the good things, but when she tried to remember the rest... It didn't work. It was frustrating to say the least, but when she talked to Shikaku about it, he had stated that it may be because whatever had given her a second chance figured she would be happier not knowing. It frustrated the girl to no end, but she seemed to realize that she wouldn't be able to do anything about it, so she simply gave up on it.

That's how another year passed to where war was declared. It was a complete shock to everyone in Konoha. Steps were taken for war to be stopped, and treaties to be formed between villages that were at each other's throats for a time. The fact that Iwa, one of the villages that was to be an ally of Konoha much to both sides surprise, had suddenly attacked a border town in Hi no kuni. That was literally all it took for war to be declared by the Sandaime, which pitted Konoha against three of the hidden villages. Iwa, Kumo and Kiri. The first two being the stronger of the three, but Kiri being the most bloodthirsty.

Due to war being declared, all of the Genin were training even more then normal, and Minato had started Fūinjutsu, to which he was trying something that even Kasumi was hesitant to do. That would be recreating the Hirashin that the Nidaime Hokage had created. Both Kushina and Kasumi were hesitant to let the blonde try this out on his own, but in the end the boys nature caused the two girls to concede, no matter how much they disagreed with him.

In turn Kasumi was taking her Fūinjutsu studies to a whole new level as she plowed through whatever was given to her. It was scary in Mito's opinion, but the drive that the girl gained from the little fact that a war was going on... It just hoped you how much a person can grow when they have a goal.

If that wasn't bad enough, Kushina was working just as hard. Mito knew she didn't have much time left, a year at most at this point, so if she continued on the path she was going, the other side of this war would be sorry when it came to even thinking about to pick a fight with Konoha. The next generation is always going to be stronger then the last, but this generation, in Mito's opinion, could very well surpass even her generation, which consisted of the strongest Shinobi she had ever seen such as Uchiha Madara, Senji Hashirama, and Senju Tobirama, the three that founded Konoha along side her.

The old Uzumaki gave a reminiscent sigh at the thought of her late Husband and brother in law. The two couldn't have been more different, and they both had become Hokage. Hashirama was so much like Kushina at times that it hurt, but other times, the girl was nothing like the Shodai Hokage. The man was boisterous and low, but then there was the fact that certain words, or comments, could easily send him into an almost brooding mode. It put a smile n her face just thinking about it.

Tobirama on the other hand, was more like Kasumi now that Mito thought about it. Kasumi, despite her best tries, could never get Kushina to do anything she needed to do unless the girl wanted to do it herself. Tobirama tended to be the more mature of the two, and it if she didn't know better, she would have said that the two were reborn into the Uzumaki clan as Kasumi and Kushina. They fitted the picture, and if Kushina did end up as Hokage, she wouldn't be surprised if Kasumi ended up as Hokage as well.

They just gave off that type of feeling.

Mito turned from her reminiscent thoughts towards Kasumi, who had just been knocked down by Kushina. She was bruised all over, you could even see the injuries, and even Kushina had a lot of injuries due to the sneaky and fast attacks that Kasumi pulled out of her hat at random times. Despite is, however, Kasumi wobbled to her feet, and got into her Taijutsu stance once again, this one being where the girl was crouched down to the ground, one hand in front of her pointing down, two finger out, while the other was behind her pointing up with a flat Palm.

Mito watched with interest, as the two sisters went at each other once again, Kushina's brut like Taijutsu versus Kasumi's more agile form of firing. Mito swore she saw the brothers once again when they started to taunt each other during their fight, but it disappeared just as quick when the old Uzumaki shook her head.

With the fight, however, Kushina charged at Kasumi with her brute like style, but the younger girl ducked to the side, and sent a palm struck to the older girls chest. Both were battered and bruised at this point, but despite this they continued to fight, shown by when Kushina landed a strong punch to the side of Kasumi's head. The younger girl in response sent a palm forward, to where she rolled the next attack out of the war by hitting her sisters wrists to send the attacks to the side.

Kushina growled in annoyance at the fact she couldn't land a hit, before she sent out a kick towards Kasumi, which caused the younger girl to trip. Rolling onto her side to avoid another kick, Kasumi quickly got up, and sent a set of three quick strikes to Kushina's chest, which was followed by a punch to the gut from said girl at the same time. The two were knocked back a few feet once again, before they charged at each other, and sent a punch into the others cheek.

The two froze for a second, before they fell backwards onto the group panting. The older of the two wasn't panting as much as Kasumi, that much being obvious she to the almost dog like panting she was doing, but both girls were still exhausted.

"That... was... a tie... right?" Kushina asked in between her panting.

Kasumi didn't answer for a second, but she eventually gave a tired "Uh huh." as a yes. Neither girl even tried to get up from eir positions on the floor, a few times they even almost fell asleep. Despite this, however, Kasumi had a grin on her face.

She tied with Kushina in a physical contest! Well, Kushina would have easily won if she had something more then a brawling Taijutsu style, but still, she tied! Not once did Kasumi think she would be able to tie with her sister in a Taijutsu fight, but she knew not to hold it over her sisters head. Given a single day, Kushina would be right back to beating her up, and then Kasumi would have to try even harder to get stronger once again, until eventually Kushina managed to get somewhere that Kasumi wouldn't be able to get to. No matter how hard you train, a ninjutsu master would never be as good at Taijutsu as a Taijutsu master.

At the same time, Kushina would never be as good at strategy as Kasumi. The younger Uzumaki's abilities lay in where her mind was involved. Whether it was seals, strategy, or even the creation of jutsu. She even had a few ideas for a new Suiton jutsu, but she didn't know what she would do about it yet. She didn't even know if her elemental affinity was for Suiton. Uzumaki tended to be either Suiton or Futon, but she was almost certain she would be able to use both, even if one isn't as strong as the other. She knew that with her mindset, she would struggle to make a new Jutsu due to the fact that the wind was so hard to control. Water tended to have a set path, something that Kasumi knew would be easier to understand, as it was uniform. Kushina, on the other hand, was someone that loves to fly off the handle when she could.

There really was no doubt that Kushina was a Futon affinity. Her nature just screamed wind.

Who knows though. For all Kasumi knew, she could be the second coming of the Nidaime Hokage, with his ridiculously strong Suiton affinity. If she came anywhere close to that type of power with a single affinity, then Kasumi knew she wouldn't want to get any stronger. She didn't want to leave everyone else behind after all. They were her second family, and if she left them behind, she didn't know what she would be able to do. That's just how the girl thought.

With another pant, Kasumi struggled to sit up, and she said "K... Kushina. L-let's... Get some sleep."

Kushina gave a sound of agreement as she sat up as well, before both girls fell backwards, passing out. Mito gave a tired sigh at the two girls, but she picked them up none the less, and carried them towards their rooms. Despite her age she was still incredibly strong, and no one would say otherwise either.

She just wished she was younger so that the two wouldn't lose their grandmother so soon.

Early the next day, Kasumi and Kushina were both sitting at their desk in the academy, their heads pressed on the hard desktop in front of them. Every once in awhile one of the two would groan, while the other was completely silent. Their friends, which were around them, were looking at the two with worried expressions. Finally after a few minutes of silence, Minato asked "Um... Are you two alright?"

"Never again." The sisters stated at e same time without lifting their heads up "To tired to care..."

Mikoto raised an eyebrow at Kushina and Kasumi "Did you two over train yourselves or something? If that's the case, I would have thought Kushina, at least, would be up."

Kasumi shifted her head a bit to show that her eyes were a dark Violet at the moment "We decided to try and fight Mito-obachan to test our strength..."

Kasumi thumped her head against the desk once again as she let that float through the air, an obvious wince went through the group. No matter what anyone said, Mito was not weak. Despite her age, she easily beat the two kids, and she hadn't even broken a sweat. The 12, and 10 year old both knew now that Uzumaki Mito was not someone to trifle with.

Shikaku let out a sigh "Let me guess, Kushina challenged her, and you got dragged into it. Am I right Kasumi."

While Kushina lifted an arm and flipped the bird in Shikaku's general direction, Kasumi gave a thumbs up towards him. The Nara chuckled in response, but none the less he got his answer, and honestly it was predictable. Kasumi got dragged into a lot of things Kushina did, even if she didn't want to get involved. The biggest example, and most recent, was with the fight against Mito. Kasumi probably didn't want to even think about fighting the older Uzumaki, yet Kushina seemed to be able to drag her into it anyway. It was a surprise the two could even get to the academy after what happened no doubt.

Mito didn't know the meaning of the phrase 'Go easy on them'.

At the same time, Mito was in the Hokage tower, an sad look on her face as she sat in front of the Sandaime Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, the student of the Nidaime Hokage, and the Shinobi no Kami. Both were well into their year, but Hiruzen was still close to thirty years younger then Mito was. Despite this, however, both of them got along greatly, even if the current situation would dismiss that idea.

"So..." Hiruzen stated as he released some smoke from the pipe he had in his mouth "What is it you wished to talk to me about Mito-sama?"

Despite the question, the look in the Sandaime's eyes showed that he knew what this conversation was going to be about. This was confirmed when Mito let out a deep sigh.

"Enough with the crap Hiruzen. You know why I'm here. Jiraiya needs to come back and soon. I don't know how much I have left in me." Mito stated "It's just... I don't wish this on Kushina. I wish there was a way to let me keep this burden instead of having the older of the sisters take it from me."

Hiruzen gave a somber nod in response "I understand Mito-sama, but the council refuses to budge on this subject. We have no choice in the matter, unless you wish to set the Kyuubi free, but even then another village could very well seal it into one of their children to use against us."

Mito put her head into her heads "Why must the ones we love always suffer the most? Every one an Uzumaki has every loved has suffered, and yet again, my loved ones must suffer. First Hashirama, then Tobirama... Now Kushina. I pray that nothing happens to Kushina, and Kasumi, or anyone they love, for it seems a curse of pain is the fate of the Uzumaki."

Hiruzen didn't say anything towards the older woman, as he knew nothing he said would convince her otherwise. She was set in her belief that all who an Uzumaki loves will suffer. History even seemed to prove this, as the Uzuamki clan was wiped from existence except for Kushina and Kasumi. Mito was still here, and even she had suffered by loss of her husband, his brother, and their child. Their granddaughter lost her brother, and her lover in the second war, which was the same war that she was named a Sannin. Every time someone an Uzumaki loved was attacked at one point.

There was no doubt that Uzuamki had the worst luck when it came to such cases.

Hiruzen sent a soft look towards the wife of his teacher's brother and said "I will do whatever I can to make sure they stay safe Mito-sama. I know I cannot promise you that nothing will happen to them, but I will try my best for them, and any other clansmen that manage to arrive in Konoha."

The old Uzumaki sent a soft smile back in return, as she said "Thank you Hiruzen. I wish the girls have a happy life when I finally leave this plan of existence, and I know you will help provide that. Do not let them be to involved in the coming war. I fear that they will become a target due to their heritage. No one knows that I'm not the only Uzumaki alive after all."

The Sandaime gave another smile, and a nod, before mito left the room, leaving Hiruzen to think over her words. She was, unfortunately, right about the apparent curse of pain that the Uzumaki seemed to have, but he wasn't going to let it strike on Kushina and Kasumi, if at all.

With a shake of his head, the Hokage looked towards his desk with a look of dread. With a grimace he said "So we meet again my nemesis..."

With a groan, he started to work on the pile of paper work on his desk once more.

Back at home, Mito had gained a thoughtful look, but it quickly disappeared when the front door was heard being opened up, followed by a yell of "Where home Dattebane!"

"Do you always have to yell dattebate?!" The voice of Kasumi yelled right back, which was followed by a groan.

"Your both to loud..." The voice of who was obviously Shikaku stated.

Not even a second later, both sisters had yelled once again "WHAT WAS THAT DATTEBANE/DATTEBATE?!"

A softer voice let out a laugh as the voice of Minato said "Maybe we shouldn't be so loud? Mito-sama could be asleep for all we know."

"With all their yelling, they probably woke up half the village at this point." Shikaku's lazy drawl stated, though you could hear the smirk in his tone.

Mito, deciding to go greet the children at this point, walked into the halls, a smile on her face "Kushina, Kasumi. Welcome back. I see you've brought friends as well."

Kushina gave a large grin towards Mito, but Kasumi had a furrowed brow. Something wasn't right with Mito, that much was obvious, but she knew that if she came right out and said anything, and Mito would deny it right away no matter what anyone said. The younger Uzumaki was worried, no doubt about that, but the real question would be as to what the problem was.

Kasumi sent Mito one last critical stare, before she sent a side glance towards Shikaku, who also seemed to notice. He gave a subtle shake of his head towards her, but nothing more then that. The message though, was received by Kasumi, and she just side in response.

"Mito-Obachan." Kasumi stated with a grin "Would it be alright if they stayed over for the night?"

Mito gave a smile along with a no, but it was a bit obvious to the rest now that she wasn't completely there. Before anyone could ask her what was Wrong, Kasumi dragged them away with a smile, and a thanks. When they arrived in a private room, Kasumi turned towards them, Kushina having a confused look, but she didn't say anything.

"Kushina." Kasumi stated with a soft tone "I don't know what's wrong with Mito-Obachan, but I know she won't tell us..."

Kushina gave a frown towards her sister "Then what should we do?"

The younger Uzumaki gave a look towards the boys, or more specifically Shikaku. The boy gave a simple nod, though there was an obvious sigh trying to break through, and he turned away from Kasumi.

"We wait and see if she wants to tell us herself."

* * *

**Kind of anti-climactic end right? Well, it's mainly for a couple of reasons, the biggest being that I've been stressed out with my classes recently, which is making me wish I didn't have so many AP classes, and en there's the fact that I'm helping my girlfriend, the owner of this account, rewrite the first story on this account. It's a RWBY fanfic for those interested, but anyway, back to other topics.**

**I think of this chapter as a bust honestly. There really wasn't much plot boosting with this chapter, and then there's the fact that it was anti-climactic at the end, but in all, I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter, as I was kind of disappointed by it, as I know I can do better, whatever the case, here is the end of chapter 9, and I hope you all enjoyed it.**

**Question time!**

**What do you think Kasumi's blocked memories involve?**

**What do you think will be the first thing to happen in the war with the siblings?**

**Are the progress rates by the Genin realistic with their new drive?**

**What did you think of Mito comparing Kasumi and Kushina to Tobirama and Hashirama?**

**What did you think of Kasumi's Affinity assessment?**

**Did you find the aftermath of the Mito VS siblings fight funny?**

**Did the Uzumaki curse make sense?**

**That's it for questions till next time!**


	10. Morbid graduations

**Hello~! I'm back with another chapter!**

**Now, I'm sorry it took me so long to get back to you guys and all, but like I've been saying, I've been helping my girlfriend with rewriting one of her stories. Add that with the fact that I need to start studying for finals at school, and e fact that my dog just had a liter of puppies, and there are a bunch of things I needed to worry about before I could finish this chapter you see.**

**Ok, that aside, let's get to responses on reviews that I have for the last chapter.**

**Angel4EverLostInLife: well here you go!**

**Llyrica: it's fine, really, I'm just glad that you reviewed at all when it comes to it :)**

**1): You might find out eventually but it will probably be awhile, the memories are 'sealed' for reason. The question would be, for what reason, ne?**

**2): Well, you need to take into consideration the fact that not only has the third Shinobi war just started, which would put anything but a D rank mission up a few notches in terms of danger, but there's the fact that a lot of C ranks will be recon missions for genin instead of other missions which require fighting.**

**3): That's good to know honestly. The progress rate was boosted as the war is still in the 'winding up' stage as there isn't to much fighting yet, but there eventually will be a good amount of fighting, and Kasumi will even go somewhere familiar that hadn't been seen for awhile. I'll let you stew over that, especially since you made a good point with the Hirashin.**

**4): That is why I said they were similar, not identical. I do think that the comparison works though, as Tobirama was the level headed one of the two brothers, as despite his serious personality behind the desk, Hashirama was actually pretty 'Hyper' if you want to put it that way.**

**5): Really? Huh... Well,my lad to know that worked just as well. Honestly though, I've found that sometimes, not always, but somtimes, the elemental affinity seemed to coincide with the ushers personality, as the user's tended to be a little eccentric to where the personality assessment showed that their elemental affinity was pretty close to their personality type. But yeah, the more you know**

**6): Figured as much :). You can never get a boring day with an Uzumaki as far as I'm concerned. God help us when Naruto is born, and Kasumi influences the child of prophecy.**

**7): Ita true though, you know? Every Uzumaki lost, or almost lost, someone they cared about. Mito with her husband, and step brother, Tsunade with her lover, and little brother. Kushina with the whole Uzumaki clan! Naruto with his parents, and the Sandaime. Nagato even with Yahiko. It seemed like a curse really.**

**InazumaSenshi: perhaps that what the memories are, but that would be spoilers. Kumo my try that, but who knows? And Yep, Hashirama and Tobirama comparison and all. So Yep, the two will get together, hope you enjoy this chapter though.**

**Kani-leek-lover: 1): Eh, you have a point with that yeah? The more info you have involving memories, usually the more mature you end up, at least in most cases. What happened with that would be a refusal to remember due to either traumatic events, or due to information overload, like you stated. So I'll give you lots of props with that, nice one.**

**2): Yep, and while the war is still in the 'winding up' phase as the moment, the motivation to improve is still there as when the real fighting starts. Protecting what's important to you is defenetly the greatest motivator to get stronger, as proven by Naruto himself. No matter what happened, he got stronger to protect something he cared about, and he ended up defeating Kaguya! That there proves how strong someone can get in terms strength for protecting someone important to you.**

**3): Glad you liked that as much as I did, as despite the fact that they were two extremely strong Shinobi, there was there off battle personalities, that showed they were different. Hashirama was eccentric in most cases, while Tobirama was calm, and calculated at times. As for the affinity thing, you were right, it is in the land of whirlpools, and the fact that a malestrom, which is in some cases a synonym to a whirlpool, is a mix of wind and water, just helps with that. And despite common beliefs, Naruto got his Wind affinity from his mother, not his father.**

**4); I never said they would turn out like the Uchiha. No, the curse of pain was the fact that the Uzumaki seemed to constantly experience pain and grief, as you stated, and it's honestly understandable. Every Uzumaki lost someone important to them, Kushina with the clan, to even Nagato, who lost Yahiko. Every Uzumaki experiences pain, but in the end it is that pain that influenced them, it was just that Nagato was influenced by an Uchiha on what he did.**

**5): All Uzumaki are monsters, what are you talking about? I mean, seriously, not only do they have monstrous stamina, as well as chakra potency, but the fact that every Uzumaki we've seen, beside Nagato, were extremely violent in lots of cases. I mean, Karin was just as bad honestly in that sense.**

**6): Your right in the case of Kasumi and Kushina, but with Shikaku and Minato, it's more along the lines of they care for her as well. With Minato started with her helping him understanding some of the Fuinjutsu theories that Kushina was teaching him, and it went off from there. Shikaku, on the other hand, was because of events like the dinner that he attending along with his family, and the fact that Mito is extremely nice. They like her, and they care for her. Does that answer it?**

**Well, that's that, I hope you had some questions answered,mad now it's time for the chapter!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing involving cannon events, or characters.**

* * *

Three weeks. That was all the time that the group had to wait before they figured out what the problem was. The first clue to this was the fact that Mito seemed to be getting more anxious than ever when Jiraiya of the sannin, a sealing master had returned to Konoha. The fact that he was reported to have a serious look on his face did nothing to help the situation for the kids. The next thing was the fact that Kasumi and Kushina were getting more pampered than usual, and not in the normal sense of pampering.

Uzumaki pampering was training upon training. She even had the two start on some seals that she had stated they were not ready for beforehand. It seemed like Mito wanted to get the two, to a level that they could do self studies on seals without a problem. Another thing was that Mito was training the two in kenjutsu, no matter what anyone said, the Genin shouldn't have been learning that until they were promoted to Chunin at the very least, so the fact they were learning this so soon was both a shock to the group, but a worrying indicator that Mito expected something to happen to her, and soon if they were reading this right.

Kasumi and Shikaku had put their heads together for this trying everything they could think for what the reason could be. Mito wasn't showing any sign that she was dying, so they didn't think of that, but that left a big hole in the other ideas they had. they knew for a fact that Mito had been a widow for years before they were born, so nothing of that sort of thing could be the problem. The war couldn't be the problem either considering the fact that she had been smack dab in the middle of the clan warring era, something that made the recent wars look like a kiddy pool fight, so what could the reason be? No matter what they thought up, they couldn't figure it out, they were still just kids after all.

Despite that fact, it grated on their nerves, not knowing a way to help someone like Mito, as she had helped others a lot. To start off, she had help Minato refine seals he was learning from Kushina, but she didn't teach him anything herself. The old Uzumaki thought it prudent that the blonde boy learn for someone in the newer generation, as her generations thoughts and ideals were completely different in every sense of the word. She was born during a massive clan warring era.

With a sigh attempting to leave Kasumi, she put her head against the table in front of her with a groan of annoyance "Why do we have to go up so early again?"

Kushina gave a snort of amusement, before she said "Practice remember? I swear, if you keep up the pace your going, your going to be an Uzumaki seal master in no time Dattebane!"

Kasumi let out a content hmm, but she didn't really comment on anything about that. Instead, she turned her head up slightly, looking towards her sister, as she asked "What about you? From what I understand, your taking Kenjutsu like a fish to water, while I'm only slightly proficient at it."

"You sell yourself short, you know that?" Kushina stated with an even look "Your a lot stronger then you realize Kasumi!"

"If that's true, then why can't I figure out what's wrong with Mito-Obachan, Dattebate?!" Kasumi stated, an annoyed look etched onto her face.

With a frown, Kushina forced Kasumi, who had started to pace, into a chair as she said "Well you can't think clearly if your so distracted Dattebane! So sit down, shut up, and eat something for Kami's sake!"

The two sisters started to glare at each other once again, full bore on each other. Kasumi's violet eyes boring into Kushina's darker eyes of a similar color. The two sisters, as head strong as they were, didn't like to let the other sister get into trouble with their health, or other things of similar sources. The fact that Kushina had just told Kasumi to eat something, however, meant that the girl was trying to make another seal, and she was invested in it to the point that she forgot to eat breakfast once again, and it was around lunch time.

Let it be know that an Uzumaki eats a lot more then a normal person, not counting an Akamichi of course.

"I'm not hungry." Kasumi stated with a flat look.

Kushina gave the look right back "I don't care Kasumi. You will eat, or I will take away all of your Manjū and have Mito-Obachan burn it in front of you."

Kasumi's eyes widened in horror at that thought, as she knew it would happen as well. Kushina would do exactly what she just said as well, and considering how Mito acted a lot of times, she wouldn't put aside the thought of Mito actually burning her Manjū stock just so she would eat some real food when she got not one of her inventing streaks. It didn't matter how much the Uzumaki appreciated creativity, if it went against your health, then Mito would put a stop to it in an instant. It also didn't help that she got all her groceries from the Akamichi, who send even more due to the sisters small frames.

It wasn't their fault they could eat whatever they wanted and still look like toothpicks in terms of body shape.

With a desperate nod, Kasumi rushed from the room, her seal research completely forgotten in light of her precious Manjū being threatened. Kushina shook her head in amusement, but she knew that she would do the same exact thing if it came to Ramen being the place of Kasumi's favorite food. It didn't matter what anyone said, Ramen was a heavenly food, and even Kasumi agreed with her! Sure, she liked Manjū, and other sweets better, but she still appreciated ramen immensely.

It was a good thing that she did, otherwise Kushina would have lectures her relentlessly on the godliness that was ramen.

The next day, Kasumi was searching through her Research notes once again, but this time Mito was right beside her watching with interest. She didn't say anything, just commented on ways of using a certain seal for a certain situation, things like that. Not once did the older Uzumaki actually help the youngest. This was her project, and as far as she knew, the little girl was trying to make a seal that would literally absorb a jutsu and transfer the chakra from the attack, for the one hit by said jutsu. The drawback of such a seal would be its one use, as it would take a lot more time then she had to figure out constants with the seal, as well as the fact that the chakra transfer would have to be peculiar, as a mistake could practically destroy the user of said seals chakra network due to damage.

Mito, at one point, stated that such a seal could be used for medical purposes as well, which got Kasumi to think over hundreds of use's for such a simple seal in theory. The fact that such a seal would be impossible for a normal person to make without a good decade or two of research made it all the more satisfying to know that her skills with Fuinjutsu, while mediocre, was amazing in comparison to some of the other people who could make seals, such as Jiraiya of the Sannin.

Speaking of the Sannin, Kasumi wanted to eventually meet all re of them. She didn't know much about the third member, Orochimaru, but she did know about the toad sage, and the slug princess. One, because they were both pseudo idols to her due to their achievements. Tsunade, the slug princess, however, was due to the fact that Kasumi actually figured out what she would try and specialize in.

She wanted to be a Medic-nin like Tsunade of the Sannin. It didn't matter what anyone said about her tactical mind being better off making plans. She would do a lot more good if she was a medic-nin instead of using her mind to formulate plans all the time. Besides, Shikaku already had that position covered in terms of their generation. He had a better battle mind then she did, that much was for certain, but even so, she was dead even with the Nara heir. Even if she started up on medical studies, it didn't mean she was going to stop with her other studies.

The reason for this was because not long ago she found out that it wasn't large mount of chakra that made an Uzumaki hard to tire in any sense of the word. No it was the potency of it. The sheer potency of Uzumaki chakra was enough that a normal Bushin, for example, wouldn't work. The clan just had to strong of chakra. The fact that suchotent chakra could actually heal faster with less in the terms of Medic-nin, showed that Tsunade had to either of worked extremely hard for her place, or she had a bit of Uzumaki chakra with her. To be honest though, while the former was more likely, the latter would be extremely cool.

Getting out of her thoughts, Kasumi scrutinizing gaze suddenly turned to a piece of paper she had right next to her, compared to the stacks of at least 60-70 papers. Looking over the piece of paper even more, she suddenly yelled "Stupid!" Before she started to rush through the papers once again.

Of course the seal wasn't working! The energy conversion wasn't working correctly! The type of conversion matrix that was stuck on the seal was one for taking pure chakra, not chakra from the elemental attacks that the would be sent towards her! If she didn't take into consideration the elemental matrix system of the seal, then the seal would be a complete bust and it wouldn't do anything. But adding in a chakra type conversion matrix relay over the normal chakra converter would in fact help with the end process!

A grin set on her face, Kasumi started to furiously write down the matrix system for the seal she was currently creating, her steady hand practically gliding over the paper in front of her. With a smirk, Kasumi remembered the fact that most seal masters did things to make them harder to copy, so she added in a couple of useless designs on the seal with normal ink. With a final once over of the seal, Kasumi sent a satisfied smile, before she blew on the paper to help the ink dry.

"Congratulations Kasumi. You just invented a new seal." Mito stated, a happy, but tired, smile, to which Kasumi noticed almost right away.

With a wary smile, Kasumi was about to ask what was wrong, but before she could, Mito suddenly fell backwards slightly, catching herself almost right away. The smaller girls eyes widened at the sight, to which she yelled "Mito-obachan!"

Kasumi felt a wave of chakra suddenly hit her, but it wasn't Mito's. It was something completely different, and evil feeling. The feeling of the chakra in an instant made her fall back a bit, sweat poring down her back from just a tiny feel of such a malevolent chakra, as it disappeared in an instant. With shaky legs, Kasumi stood up, unsteadily, and asked "W-what was that?"

She mentally cursed herself for stuttering, but that chakra! There was no way that chakra belonged to her kind and caring Obachan! If it was, she would cut her hair completely off.

"That..." Mito stated with heavy breaths "Was the beast which is sealed inside of me... I am sorry Kasumi... I wanted to see you wearing that headband of yours."

"What?" Kasumi asked with wide eyes, tears starting to to threaten to fall as she processed the words.

Mito sent one more soft smile "Make sure you and your sister grow up, and please don't hold back."

That was the last thing that Kasumi heard, before a heaviness went through her. She registered that it was a Genjutsu all to late, as she fell to the side, her eyes completely closing.

She didn't know how long she had slept, and she didn't know how long had passed before she woke up. The only thing she knew, was that she had become incoherent for a few days, as the first thing she registered was standing under and umbrella, while wearing a black sundress, right next to her sister, who was wearing something similar to her. She only barely registered being dragged away from the grave marker of Uzumaki Mito, by a man with long white hair, and a woman with blonde hair, neither one of them recognizable in her current stated of mind.

She barely registered things for a couple of weeks after that, and it was understandable. Despite the fact that Kushina wore her heart on her sleeve, she was a lot more emotionally stable in comparison to Kasumi. They both were loved equally by the older Uzumaki, but by this time, her memories of her real mother were shadows, and she could only remember Mito's face whenever she thought of her mother. She was the only woman figure she knew anymore, as she couldn't even remember her own mothers face.

What broke her out of her depression, however, was the rough voice of Shikaku. It was a gentle tone, and she barely registered what he had said, but it was enough to get her out of her tunnel vision, and she could see her sister, who looked extremely worried, sitting next a older man with white hair, a headband for 'oil' on his head, along with red markings going down his face. The woman next to him, had a almost dirty blonde hair color, with honey colored eyes, and a purple diamond on her forehead.

"Kasumi?" Shikaku's voice asked, causing her Violet eyes to snap towards him, and he gained a released look on his face.

Kasumi looked around slowly at everything, before she quietly asked "How?"

"A week." The Nara stated with a careful tone "When you were put under that genjutsu, you became unresponsive even after we got you out of it. You did basic functions, like you ate by yourself, took baths, and slept, but you wouldn't do anything else."

The fact that it had only been a week shocked Kasumi slightly, before the full weight of what happened hit her. Chocking back a sob, Kasumi crashed into Shikaku's shoulder and started to wail loudly into his shoulder. She registered that Kushina had hugged her as well, but she just continued to cry the whole time. When she finally calmed down, Kasumi sniffed a few times, before bowed slightly towards all four people in front of her.

"Arigatogozaimas." She choked out, from behind a sob.

Shikaku simply but a comforting hand on her shoulder, while he moved his seat next to her. Kushina hadn't even yelled once about how worried she was, so that was a good sign, but it was theory her two she was worried about. To start with, the guy had a blank look on his face, but she knew that inwardly he would be disappointed in her sorry state. She was supposed to be a Kunoichi for Kami's sake. No, it was the woman she really cared about though.

Her expression was one of sympathy, disappointment, and there was something else she didn't recognize in her eyes as well. Whatever the last thing was, she knew that it was because of her state right now. The woman was obviously a serious Kunoichi, and there was a war going on at the moment. Considering that she was crying like a little kid didn't help anything.

"Are you ok Kasumi?" Kushina asked, her tone quiet, but there was an obvious worry in it.

In response Kasumi chuckled bitterly "Mito-Obachan is gone... The worst part, is I can't even remember Kaasan..."

That comment broke everyone out of whatever thought process they had before, as the girl continued.

"Whenever I think of Kaasan, Mito-obachan's face is there instead. Why can't I remember my own Kaasan?" Kasumi stated, a bitter smile on her face, though they knew it was becuase she hated herself for forgetting her own mother.

"Kasumi." Kushina stated with a firm tone "You were only 4 when Uzu fell, no one would blame you for it! I wouldn't blame you for it..."

The last bit was whispered, but Kasumi did hear it, and it actually helped enough to make Kasumi say "I... I don't know what to do now... Mito-Obachan had stated I was good enough for self studies on Fuinjutsu, but I don't know if I'll be good enough..."

"There's your start." A male voice suddenly stated.

Everyone looked up to see the white haired man wi a smirk on his face. Getting a confused look, and a 'what?' From Kasumi, the older Shinobi continued "Your aiming for Fuinjutsu master right? Fuinjutsu is a art of its own, the fact that you think it might not be good enough, is a good thing as your always aiming to improve see, so it's good that you think that way."

Kasumi blushed a little at that, but she did say "It's not my dream though. My dream is to be a top class Medic-nin like Tsunade of the Sannin."

The white haired guys face fell at that comment, while the woman laughed, loudly, which caught everyone off guard. When she finally calmed down, she said "That's a riot! I didn't expect someone so well versed in the sealing arts to want to be a medic of all things! Where is this coming from Gaki?"

"If you need to know, it's becuase I want to be strong like she is, got a problem with that dattebate?!" Kasumi yelled, which in turn made Kushina and Shikaku smile a bit in relief.

It seemed like their Kasumi was coming back. Honestly, if it wasn't for circumstances, the Ino and Cho of the ino-shika-cho would have been here, along with Minato and Mikoto. The two calm heirs couldn't as they had to meet with representatives of the villages along with their parents along with Mikoto. Minato, on the other hand, was because he was being dragged around by a very irritated Inuzuka Tsume, who he had accidentally ran into. The heiress very quickly dragged Minato off no matter how many times he protested saying he needed to go see Kasumi, or so Kushina was told by Shikaku.

Not that the Nara would lie anyway.

Breaking out of their musing, they head the woman chuckle once again, as she said "Gaki, do you realize your talking to the person you want to be like?"

That caused both red heads to stop, while Shikaku just stared in surprise. The way she looked was nothing like they expected when it came to a Kage level Kunoichi. The fact that she was one of the Sannin, however, was enough of a shock, for Kasumi to slump backwards once again, the day's events completely muddling her brain due to over thinking.

Shikaku sent out a sigh, before he lifted the girl up and walked off into another room while letting out a Mendosukè along the way.

A few weeks later, and everything was back to normal. Well, as normal as could be with Uzumaki's. Tsunade had actually started to give pointers to Kasumi, who flat out refused to become her apprentice. When the young Uzumaki explained why, Tsunade begrudgingly let it slide, as it seemed Kasumi wanted to earn her own keep through hard work by herself. She had already created a seal, something that was an amazing feat for someone who was 10, and Tsunade understood the reasoning.

The moment of truth, however, was today. The biggest day of the group of seven had. The hardest thing they would face before they became adults in the Shinobi world.

The academy test.

The group, deciding not to wait, all decided to take the test today and get their headbands, something they all desperately wanted at this point, even Kasumi, who was normally the most level headed, even regarding Shikaku some times. Everyone looked towards the two as impromptu leaders of their mini gang, as he coup called it, but the biggest problem in the past week was for Kushina. The problem was her shot chakra control. No one knew, or really cared for that matter, about why her chakra control was so shot when it was a lot better before. Instead they all helped her in any way they could, Kasumi going as far as using a seal that made her abysmal control a little better, before taking said seal of when Kushina got used to it.

It really helped the fiery red head in many different ways.

Now came the tests however, and Kasumi was extremely nervous. There was nothing on the test saying that they couldn't use Kage Bushin, but in the other side of the coin, it didn't say that they could either. If the instructor says that they don't pass due to that problem, she didn't what she would do honestly. She was trying to hard, and she was actually going to be passing early then most in consideration of age, but whatever happens happens. She just knew that she would never be able to use a regular Bushina due to the sheer potency that Uzumaki have when it came to chakra.

"Uzumaki, Kasumi!" A voice called, and with a deep breath, she walked into the room and in front of the two teachers who were going to test her.

The one on the left gave a small frown, but simply said "Show me a henge."

Performing the seal for the henge, Kasumi turned into a younger version of Mito that she had seen a painting of, as it was before pictures. The two chūnin instructors eyes widened at the sight of the shodaime's wife, before Kasumi dispelled the henge, and looked to see the two instructors writing down her score.

The next thing she did was a simple Kawarimi, switching with a chair that was in the room easily enough. The problem now, was the Bushina. With a deep breath, Kasumi said "Kage Bushin no jutsu!"

Three smoke clouds appeared behind her as the three clones appeared. She wouldn't be able to make as many clones a Kushina, but she had enough chakra, with her potency as well, to make a good ten before she needed to be careful with her enemy.

The instructor on the right gave frown as he said "I told you Bushin, not Kage Bushin. Do it again."

Kasumi gave him a neutral look, and simply stated "I cannot. My chakra is to potent for me to make much more then a fleshy lump in terms of Clones."

The other instructor gave a snort "Yeah right. First I've heard this. Unless you perform a regular Bushin, you don't pass."

Kasumi raised an eyebrow at this "Oh? And who gives you this right Chunin-san? As far as I knew, you pass a student because they have the ability to become a Shinobi, while the next test weeds out those who do not make the cut. Add this with the simple fact that I am using something that was labeled as a Kinjutsu solely on the amount of chakra it requires, and you are wasting obvious potential that could help the village win this war. And to top this off, you know full well that I am well versed in both Fuinjutsu and Iryojutsu, with a bit of Kenjutsu due to Mito-Obachan, and not passing me may very well be the last thing you do as a chūnin before being demoted by the Hokage."

Kasumi gave a closed eye smile towards the two Chunin in front of her as they both gapped like fish at the fact that they were just upstaged in logic by an academy student, as well as paling as they knew she was right, something that pissed them off, but they knew they couldn't do anything.

With that in mind, a grumble came from the two, as one told her to grab a headband and get out. Kasumi happily did so, but before she walked out, she turned and said "By the way, my sister, who is also and Uzumaki, will be coming in soon. She has the same problem, do make sure to keep my words in mind."

Needless to say, everyone who deserved to pass did pass.

* * *

Omake!: Kushina and Minato's first meeting.

Uzumaki Kushina was stubborn in most cases, and she didn't get embarrassed easily either. Sure, her sister tended to be able to get the drop in her a lot in terms of embarrassment, mainly due to her sharp mind, but despite this, she could honestly say no one ever got her embaressed under normal circumstances.

That is, until she met that flaky blonde.

Namikaze Minato, someone who could only be considered a 'pretty boy' in Kushina's opinion, could make her blush without even trying. The flaky blonde only complimented her hair, and it sent her face ablaze, to where she ended up punching him, and that wouldn't even be considered their first meeting. No, their official first meeting was the day after that.

Kushina and Kasumi were walking to school like normal, the small 4 year old with a book in her hand, though she quickly left once they got to school, deciding to sit under a tree and read like most cases, that wasn't so surprising to Kushina, walking into the classroom, however, she was greeted to the sight of the flaky blonde standing in front of her. Sending a scowl his way, while he just smiled in response.

"Hello again." He stated with a smile "I'm sorry about yesterday, if I offended you."

Kushina sent a scowl his way once again, as she said "What do you want?"

The blondes smile didn't drop, as he said "I just said it, I'm sorry for yesterday, if I offended you. I didn't mean to if I did."

Kushina tried to ignore him after that saying that he was her rival when she found out he wanted to be Hokage as well, but no matter what she did, he wouldn't leave her alone!

Stupid flaky blonde.

* * *

**Ha! Looks like she sure got those Chunin instructors!**

**Ok, getting on track, I'm happy to say that the tenth chapter is done! While I don't know exactly how many chapters there are going to be involving this story, I do know that this part of the story will be completely separate in comparison to another part, such as Naruto's generation and all. You'll see that all right, don't worry bout that, but what's going to happen though is that it will be put into a sequel. I hope none of you have a problem with that, but it's still a ways off before I think of making, or putting up, a sequel to this story.**

**Questions!**

**What do you think of Uzumaki 'pampering' ?**

**What do you think of Kasumi's habits involving venting seals?**

**What do you think of the Uzumaki eating habits that were stated?**

**Did the body shape thing make sense?**

**What are your thoughts on the seal that she created?**

**Did the theory of the seal she made make sense?**

**Was the depression period realistic?**

**Were you surprised by what Kasumi wanted to do instead of what her skills say?**

**Was Kasumi's logic sound when it came to the explanation to the chunin?**

**Finally, what did you think of the little Omake at the end?**

**That's it, so I hope to hear from you soon, so till next time!**


	11. Teams, and truths

**Well, here we are with chapter 11. Honestly, this story has hit a large popularity mark, higher then I ever expected it to hit. Needless to say, I'm extremely happy, and this story wouldn't be nearly as popular if not for all of you viewers. Thank you, every last one of you for continued support on this story, and I'll continue to write this story to the best of my abilities, though I really hope people continue to enjoy this.**

**On a side note, please review more, I enjoy hearing everyone's thoughts, and I do hope you answer the questions at the end as well, but let's get to the reviews.**

**Silly60: first off, yes, Kushina is the new jinchuriki, but the genjutsu that Mito used on Kasumi wasn't strong enough to knock her out for that long. No, it was the fact that someone she cared so much about died that she was unresponsive. In this sense, the genjutsu just knocked her out for an hour or two, while she became unresponsive due to grief. Hope this made sense.**

**Llyrica: thanks! I understand if you can't review wall the time, so I'll instead hope to hear more from you next time.**

**Angel4EverLostInLife: glad you liked the chapter, and I hope you enjoy this chapter as well.**

**Kani-leek-lover: 1): yeah, death is a major thing in this type of story, but the fact that it was mito, someone who Kasumi looked towards as she couldn't remember her actual mother... The death hit her really hard, and she'll be able to get through it, trust me.**

**2): Thanks. I honestly thought I would loose a lot of people explaining how the seal matrix worked an all, but it worked out well I see. With Mito, she didn't want to outright teach her, as the younger generation had a new outlook, which is how the seal inventing would be different, as she didn't want to influence Kasumi's thought process. In essence, the Uzumaki are all genius's in one sense, and that's with seals, so expect more from her soon.**

**3): really? Huh, well seals have literally an infinite range of possibilities in terms of use, so just because she's a medic-nin, doesn't mean that she won't create seals for other purposes, such as trap seals, new and improved versions of old seals, and even barrier seals. Seals are infinitely useful, but the more complicated the seal, the longer it takes to make. But with the medic capabilities, to which she wanted to figure out as much for herself as possible, thus turning down Tsunade, she would become better the Tsunade in the sense that her seals would help with the process. Nothing more or less.**

**4): Kasumi reminds me of Mavis vermillion from Fairy tail zero when she gets all logical. In fact, that's where I got that from. Kasumi just doesn't care about people trying to cheat people out of things they earned. So, the fact that she did that to the instructors doesn't come as a surprise.**

**5): That honestly was just an experiment, so when I got positive feedback from it, I decided I would do it more often, and try to have one at the end of every chapter I think I could fit it into. So look forward to more yeah?**

**Now onto the chapter!**

**Disclaimer: I own all non-cannon characters, and events. Please support the official releases.**

* * *

There was a small break between the time of when the newly instated genin would get their team, and the time it would take for them to get their ID cards as it turned out. To say that Kasumi was surprised by this, would be an understatement. It also gave a her a headache, as Kushina reigned terror in the villagers for the time being, as she wouldn't have been able to pull pranks on the populous of Konoha anymore. That isn't to say she would stop her pranks, but to say she wouldn't pull them on civilians anymore.

Kushina was a bit of a devil in that sense.

The gourd of friends, however, decided to get together one last time before they actually became apart of teams, though int was obvious that certain people would be on each other's teams. Mikoto would definitely be on the same team as Minato, they going the top two in the class and all. The one who they didn't know with who was going on their team, however, was the Ino-Shika-cho heir's, and the youngest Uzumaki. Unless they broke tradition, it would end up being two boys with one girl, as was normal for genin teams. The fact that Shikaku and Kasumi were most likely going to end up on the same team, did nothing to distract them.

So instead of worrying about what team they were going to end up on, all of the Genin in the group got together for a party to celebrate passing the academy. It didn't matter that they would end up having to go and fight in the war not to long after, it was the fact that they knew this that helped with the party. They didn't know if any of them would die, as morbid as the thought was, so they were spending as much time as they could with each other before that fateful day that they are sent out into the world to fight.

The three seal users in the group, however, started to help each other even more, and Kasumi had even given the seal design for her own custom seal, before the party had winded down to a close. The seal was ingenious down to the last drop of ink, but before Minato could comment on it, Kasumi stated that she didn't want either of them messing with the design. It was her seal, and she would improve it, no one else. Both her sister, and her blonde friend reluctantly agreed to that, but they understood why. She worked hard for the creation of just that seal, it would be like cheating her if she wasn't the one to improve on the design of said seal.

The part lasted until about midnight before everyone went home to get proper rest, every single one of them excited about what was going to happen the next day involving teams. None more so then Kushina, however, as she was literally yelling happiness about the fact that she was going to get a jõnin sensei. It took Kasumi seven, _seven_, suppression seals to finally be able to sleep, and even then, Kushina was mumbling in her sleep.

Kushina was just that excited.

The next day, however, instead of excited, Kushina was nervous. Kasumi gave a deadpan look towards her sister's mood shift, but otherwise didn't comment on it. There was no reason for her to think to deeply about it. She was nervous to, no matter what anyone said, as she had no clue who she was working with, and that sent chills down her spine, and not the good kind either.

Kasumi had this same chill down her spine when Kushina was getting geared up for one of her pranking raids. Every time she felt it, something bad happened to her, and she just knew that whatever was going to happen soon, was not going to be. Fun for her.

This theory was quickly proven. It happened before the teacher even stated who the teams were! It all started with Shikaku getting hit in the head by a piece of rubber from Tsume. It caused a chain reaction fairly quickly, to which the Nara actually retaliated. The retaliation was through a simple leg being sent out, causing the Inuzuka to trip, and tumble. The tripped Inuzuka then fell into Aburame Shibi, who was sent crashing into Mikoto, who surprisingly let out a girlish scream. Said scream caused everyone who was falling sleep to jump up, which in turn caused Inoichi to tumble forwards, and hit his head against Kasumi, while his feet hit Choza.

All of that because of a single tripping movement, and Kushina was the only one who was spared.

In an instant, however, everyone froze, a chill going down their spines. Everyone, even Kushina, turned slowly to see a dark aura enveloping Kasumi. When she lifted her head, her hair started to lift up behind her due to her agitated Chakra, and her gaze locked onto Inoichi, who started to sweat under her gaze. Those Violet eyes were not something that you wanted turned towards you when either of the Uzumaki were mad at you. The fact she had a tiny bit of blood coming from her forehead did nothing to make her look sweet in comparison to what she normally looked when she wasn't angry. The blonde looked towards Shikaku for help, but the Nara gave him a salute showing he was on his own.

Turning back towards Kasumi, he gulped, while her look turned feral, and she punched on him. Sweet and hard to make angry aside, Kasumi was vicious when she did get angry, and the fact that her head had just been slammed into a desk did nothing to help the situation.

A few minutes, Kasumi gave a satisfied look, while she turned back towards the front waiting for their teacher. Behind her Inoichi was laying on his desk, a bunch of lumps on his head and face to show exactly where she had been beating him.

When the chunin instructor finally came into the room, he had a scowl on his face at the sight of Kasumi, but he didn't pay attention to her as he addressed the whole class "Alright, you brats may have passed the Genin exam, but you need to remember that outside of this room you are adults, and the village expects you to act as such. Your actions reflect the village. Don't screw this up."

His gaze lingered on Kasumi and Kushina for a second, before he began to red off the teams. Kasumi didn't pay to much attention at first, but the seconds she heard one of her friends name, she paid extra attention.

"Team 6, Namikaze Minato, Jinshu Ren, and Kitono under Jiraiya. Kyo. Team 7, Uzumaki Kushina, Uchiha Mikoto, and Uzumaki Kasumi, under Senju Tsunade. Team 8 Inuzuka Tsume, Aburame Shibi and Nezumi Kaito, under Hiroto Kunita team nine is in circulation still, so team 10 will consist of Nara Shikaku, Akamichi Choza, and Yamanaka Inoichi under Sarutobi Junchi." The chunin stated with a neutral look, though the shock of some of the teams rippled through the class.

Kasumi was, to say the least, both shocked, and annoyed. She was shocked because it seemed they did forgo tradition in favor of keeping good teams together, and most likely because of the war as well. She was annoyed, however, was because Tsunade got the last laugh. No matter what she did now, she wouldn't be able to refuse Tsunade's help, as she was now her jõnin Sensei of all things. It annoyed her to no end, as she honestly expected Tsunade to not want to bother with Genin. Then again, the team was a complete team in terms of Kunoichi. It was literally a Kunoichi only team, and that seemed to be something that had sparked interest in Tsunade.

Letting her head fall against the desk once again, Kasumi waited in breathless silence, until she heard a familiar female voice say "I'm here for Team 7."

Kasumi's Violet gaze snapped up, into a flare at the greatest Kunoichi of all time. Her stupid smug look grated Kasumi's nerves. It seemed that Tsunade didn't know the meaning of the word 'No' in terms of training like she wanted. Kasumi wanted to test herself without help, but that was blown out the window the second she heard who her Sensei was.

Getting up with a sigh, Kasumi followed her sister, and her friend out as they traveled through Konoha a bit until she was greeted with a familiar sight of a certain park. The sight of it reminded Kasumi of what had happened between her and Shikaku here, and an almost wistful look came across her features. Shaking her head slightly in amusement, she ran to catch up with her team as they stopped near a small pond that had some ducks in it.

Tsunade turned towards them, a smile on her face "Ok, now, I'm not going to test you any farther, as I know both of you two, and I'm pretty sure the Uchiha wouldn't let the heiress out without sufficient school. I also know that you three are friends, so there is no need for a teamwork test. Instead we'll just introduce ourselves, how's that?"

Mikoto seemed to be the only one with a confused look, but seeing the either, exasperated or annoyed looks from the two Uzumaki, she kept silent about why they weren't being tested. Instead she asked "Um... Could you give us an example Senju-sensei?"

Tsunade rolled her eyes at the formal tone Mikoto gave her, and said "Sure, but please just call me Tsunade, those two are going to." She pointed towards the siblings, who stuck their tongue a out at her, or at least Kushina did "Ok, well, my name is Senju Tsunade, though I prefer just Tsunade. I like Medicine, Serious Kunoichi and Sakè. I dislike Fangirls, and perverts. My hobbies include finding new medicine, and gambling. My dream for the future has already been achieved as far as I'm concerned."

The Slug princess finished with a smile, before gesturing towards Kasumi, who reluctantly said "I'm Uzumaki Kasumi. I like my famil and friends, Ramen, Manjū, sealing, and medicine. I dislike Fangirls, and having others help me with my projects." She gave a pointed look to Tsunade who didn't look ashamed at all " My hobbies are studying medicine, and creating new seals. My dream for the future is to become a top class Medic-nin."

Kushina jumped up when it was her turn, as she enthusiastically said "My name is Uzumaki Kushina Dattebane! I like Ramen, my sister, and friends, and practicing with my sword! I dislike the time I have to wait for Ramen to heat up, people messing with my friends, and a certain flaky blonde. My hobbies include eating Ramen, making seals with my sister, and pranking. My dream for the future is to be the first female Hokage Dattebane!"

Kasumi and Mikoto both let out a laugh by how energetic Kushina seemed in general, but when they calmed down, Mikoto's calm voice said " My name is Uchiha Mikoto. I like Sweets, cabbage, and my friends. I dislike bullies and sour food. My hobbies include helping Kushina with her pranks, reading, and practicing. My dream for the future is to have a family."

Tsunade gave a small hum of acknowledgment at their words, before she grinned, and said "Ok, with how each other your skill sets work, this team will most likely end up as a front line team. Considering that Kasumi-chan wants to be a medic, this means I need to make sure that your just as battle ready, and I'm not talking about your seals either."

Kasumi raised an eyebrow at Tsunade, finally relenting to the fact that she was going to teach them, but she didn't know what Tsunade actually ment by 'battle ready' for a medic. As far as she knew, they didn't get into the fighting unless they needed to try and heal someone. Most of the time, medics were neutral as well, so they couldn't fight. The fact that she was saying that she was going to make Kasumi into a battle ready version of a regular Medic-nin.

"I bet your confused, aren't you?" Tsunade asked with a grin "how about a demonstration then?"

All three of the girls watched with renewed interest, as Tsunade walked up to a tree and made out like she was going to flick it. In an instant, all three girl's eyes widened to a marginal degree as the single finger flick caused the tree to splinter into pieces.

Needless to say, all three girls listened to whatever the slug princess had to say for the remaining time they had with her. It was a smart idea as well, as due to this the three learned that chakra control was the reason why she could do somthing like that. Kushina deflated at that, figuring out fairly quickly that she would never be able to learn it, what, with her huge chakra reserves? It was impossible. Mikoto seemed reluctant to learn it as well due to the fact that her chakra reserves, while not overly large, were still larger then Kasumi's, the one who knew for sure that she could learn it.

By the Time they actually started to train, Kasumi was extremely excited about what she was going to learn. This wasn't to say that the other two weren't excited either, but it seemed that they would have to seek out new jutsu on their own. Tsunade was going to be getting them into shape faster then anyone else could have predicted, with her chakra control exercises that she taught them, and the physical exercise they would go through, but the actual jutsu, they would have to find themselves.

Both Kushina and Kasumi, however, had a lot of Suiton and Fuiton scrolls left behind by Mito when they went through the house, and they knew that she left them there on purpose. She even left behind several seal formula ideas that she had for Kasumi, as the younger immediately grabbed the notes when she saw them, rushing towards her room. A lot of the seals were impractical, her own included, as they took anywhere from thirty minutes, to 4 hours to make simply due to the complexity of the sealing matrix, as some of the seals had a quad layer chakra compositor that prevented tampering with by anyone but the user.

Without a doubt, this was Uzumaki Fuinjutsu.

Other things the three girls learned that day was that all three of them would learn at least basic Iryojutsu. When questioned, e slug princess stated that it would probably save their lives one day, as if Kasumi was down, and there wasn't another medic-nin around, one of them would be able to patch the others up. Even Kushina could learn the basic's as it didn't take as much chakra control to coax tissue to heal. Wounds muscle deep or more, however, was something that actual Medic-nin's would need to be around for.

By the time they were done with the day, Kasumi had been thinking about something, and she had honestly been trying not to think about it, but now, she felt guilty. She had wanted to tell both Mito and Kushina about her past life, but she could never build up the courage, as she didn't know how they would react. The only reason why she even told Shikaku, was because he had an open mind when it came to things like this. She wasn't proud of that, but it was the truth. She was afraid of what would happen when she told Kushina, and she really didn't want to keep it to herself anymore.

With her having a team now, the sense of guilt was growing even more, as she was not only with her Aunt figure Tsunade, who was their sensei, but she had her teammates of a friend and sister. The whole thing just continued to add guilt onto the small read headed girl, to the point she was just about to break, but she held together by only thinking of her fear of rejection.

Now, however, she didn't think she could act like herself anymore while keeping this secret. So with a worried though, Kasumi said "Ano... Can I tell you three something?"

The three in question turned towards her with curious looks, while Tsunade's eyes narrowed slightly seeing the expression the girl was given "I don't see why not."

Shifting a little bit under the Sannin's gaze, she looked towards her sister and friend, before she spilled her guts, metaphorically. She explained everything, and even took the time to prove that she was telling the truth, but by the end, Kasumi was looking at the ground, tears threatening to break loose as she expected one of her friends to get angry with her, tell at her, or even attack her for keeping this. Instead, Kushina proved her unpredictability by hugging her sister. The action caused the smaller Uzumaki to freeze, but it was what Kushina said next that really got to her.

"I don't care." Was all Kushina said. Three simple words, that impacted Kasumi enough to actually start crying in relief. The third time in her life she cried, and it was only this time that the crying was because of happiness instead sadness.

When the two finally broke away from each other, Kushina sent a grin towards her sister and said "While I would have been happier if you had told me earlier, I understand. Don't worry though! Your my Imouto and nothing is going to change that 'ttebane!"

Kasumi laughed a bit at the verbal tick, before she gave a happy nod. Turning towards Mikoto and Tsunade, she saw that they had small smiles on their faces as well. The sight made Kasumi even more happy, as she ran over towards then with grins. It wasn't until latter that they decided to go home, though Kasumi said that she needed to get something from the store for dinner.

The girl was looking at a package of leeks with an annoyed look. The annoyed look grew when she saw the price, and she grumbled "Cheapskates... Who pays 350 Ryo for leeks?"

Putting the vegetables back onto the pile it was from, she turned towards the Potato's right as Minato burst through the door, a panicked look on his face. In an instant, Kasumi stopped what she was doing and looked at the blonde boy, just as he spoke.

"Kushina's been kidnapped!"

Omake: {Never prank Kasumi.}

Kushina was sitting down at her desk, her face down on the flat surface. Most people wouldn't care, as most tended to ignore her, or insult her hair, but the normally boisterous girl not being loud? That was abnormal. The fact that Kasumi wasn't around either just added to the worry, as the girl had never missed a day of school unless it was important.

The first to ask about what was going on was Mikoto, who asked "Kushina... Is somthing wrong?"

"I'm doomed..." The red headed girl let out, not even moving from her position on the desk.

The black haired girl sweat-dropped at the reaction from the redhead "What? Is there a test you forgot about today or something?"

Kushina moved her head slightly, shaking her head "Worse. I accidentally hit Kasumi with one of my pranks."

Everyone, absolutely everyone, in the room froze. At the exact same time, they yelled "You idiot!" Towards Kushina, who didn't even flinch, already expecting this.

Everyone in the school new the normally level headed girl. She wasn't all that dangerous under normal circumstances. The calm demeanor, however, hide a fierce vengeance streak in the girl when it came to non lethal things. There was a reason why Kasumi was on par with Shikaku in terms of mental ability, and the fact that Kasumi was hit by one of Kushina's pranks, made everyone scared.

The girl would probably think it was meant for her, and due to the competitive streak that all Uzumaki have, she would want to get back at the one who got her. The fact that it was own sister meant nothing in this type of situation. She would get Kushina back tenfold for whatever it was that said redhead did to her sister.

Shikaku just shook his head in pity "It was nice knowing you Kushina."

Inoichi gave a salute, along with fake tears "Your memory will be honored!"

Choza gave a salute as well, though he had his other arm out with one of his chip bags "Last meal for the lady?"

Kushina sent a death glare at her friends, as she said "Shut up. I'm not going to die from this Dattebane!"

The others didn't look all that convinced, though Minato was still silent as he tried to think of something, anything, to say to Kasumi before the prank could be set out, but even he knew that this wouldn't work. So with a sigh, he stood up to make his way to find said girl, when he felt something break. Looking down, he had just enough time to realize that he had a rope around his leg, before he was dragged upwards, a yell coming out of his mouth.

at the same time, Kushina was dragged upwards, a scream of fear coming from her. The two eventually collided, and the ropes around their ankles started to wind them up together in a cocoon of rope. Once they stopped spinning, a whistling sound was heard, as the two were then pelleted with balls of paint in various colors. To add insult to injury, most of it was bright neon colors. To top it all off, however, something hit the cocooned boy and girl, sending them towards the wall, only to hit a false wall, and fall into a pit of mud.

A clicking sound was heard not to long after, to show Kasumi standing over then, a camera in her hands, and a blank look on her face. The two cocooned ninja in training looked at her with wide eyes, as she said "Don't prank me again."

She waved the picture of the two in front of them showing her blackmail material, before she walked away leaving the two to find a way out themselves.

That is why you never prank Uzumaki Kasumi.

* * *

**Dun, dun, duuuuunnn! Cliffhanger!**

**Sorry I had to do that, but I'm going to have a chapter dedicated to the Kushina being kidnapped part, as well as things surrounding it, such as before they find her, during the rescue, and somewhat after the rescue, so I hope you don't get to made about the cliffhanger. Being honest, this is the first time I've done a cliffhanger, so I don't know if someone will be annoyed with this or not, but I do hope that no one gets unreasonably annoyed, as cliffhangers are annoying, and I'm the one writing this!**

**Ok, now I wanna say this. Is story as gotten popular enough that there are close to a hundred followers, and favorites apiece, as well as two communities. The views are at over 5,000, so I wanna say this once again. I wanna see a story where it's like one of those 'Reading of' things involving this. Ill send you everything you need, drafts included, but if anyone is interested, and they don't have a project that they think is incredibly important, I would like to buff out details for it. Please PM me for details!**

**Ok, moving on to the questions.**

**What did you think of the domino effect that happened?**

**We're the team placements interesting?**

**What do you think of the little surprise I gave your with Tsunade?**

**What did you think of Mikoto's likes and dislikes?**

**Did the training regime make sense?**

**What did you think of Kasumi finally spilling her guts with her past?**

**Did what Kushina do make sense?**

**How do you feel about the cliffhanger?**

**What did you think of this omake?**

**Well, that's about it with this, so I hope people review, and enjoy this chapter!**


	12. Savior and the three ducklings

**Yo everyone. I'm back with the next installment of Misty vortex. For those of you that care, I'm happy with all the freed back I've received, and I hope to get more feedback, even if it's negative, so long as it's not flames, I'll read it.**

**Onto reviews!**

**AngelLost4EverInLife: well here you go, I just hope you could add more in next time, ne?**

**Kani-leek-lover: glad you were so pumped, it always nice to have feedback.**

**1): Glad you liked the teams, and I couldn't have anything but Ino-Shika-cho in this case. As for Mikoto, she is a serious Kunoichi, she just didn't the damned Uchiha arrogance, which seems to be genetic in all the males except for Shisui and Obito, so there's that. As for the sweets and Cabbage, hey. Itachi had to get it somewhere, so why not his mother?**

**2): Yeah, the guilt of something like that would be enormous, and the guts it took for the normally quiet Kasumi, at least in comparison to most Uzumaki, to tell them? But, yeah. Kushina did say she was slightly upset that she waited so long, but she would still be her sister no matter what. Now Kasumi is practically guilt free, so she can be herself once again.**

**3): Ok, to answer your questions, as far as I knew Shizune didn't become her apprentice until about the middle of the third war, to which all three of her genin will be at least Chunin rank, maybe even Jõnin, so there would still be a long time for Tsunade to teach Shizune. To clarify this, however, Kasumi is not, nor will she ever be, Tsunade's apprentice. She wants to learn on her own to much for that.**

**4): Well, you are going to see in this case. Trust me when I say that your going to like this chapter just as much, even if I gave you a pesky cliffhanger in the process. No matter what, however, the number one hyper active knucklehead ninja will be born.**

**5): now, that was something I added in due to the fact that there was such a sad ending to the last chapter, which is something I don't like to do. A funny note, on the other hand... Either way, glad you liked the chapter, and I hope you like this chapter as well.**

**Well that's that, but I still wanna stated that I need a 'reading of' person for this story, as I'm curious to how this would turn out. Honestly, it would be extremely interesting, even as a side project where you update every once in awhile only. That said, let's get the disclaimer.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except for non-cannon characters and events.**

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Some words came be extremely simple, while having a strong sense of emotion attached to them. The words 'I love you' is one example of this type of situation. What Namikaze Minato said, however, was just as, if not more, extreme in terms of emotion for the one he told. The one being told this, being Uzumaki Kasumi, sister of the Uzumaki that had been kidnapped, was shocked, before her hair flew up in a way similar to her sister when she got angry.

Seeing the look on her face, Minato paled a bit, but he did exactly what he was told, which was to lead the way, while explaining. As it turned out, Kumo had heard of the Uzumaki becoming a jinchuriki, and decided to try and add a Third to their arsenal. If that wasn't the worst part, it was also so they could make an army of Uzumaki soldiers, which caused Minato to have chills go down his spine.

Kasumi, unlike some of the others in the small group of theirs, was not sheltered in thinking about what another village could do. Turning someone into breeding stock to strengthen your forces was not above Kumo, or Iwa. Konoha was far from merciful towards its enemies, but they wouldn't do something like that just to strengthen their village. Konoha had been strong for the simple fact of their teamwork was almost always flawless on missions.

Almost anyways.

Every so often there would be a group of genin, or higher ranked individuals being put with people they didn't get along with, but more often then not, teamwork was the reason for the success of the hidden leaf, even going as far back as the clan wearing era. Something that was so brutal in terms of fighting, that the first and second Shinobi wars couldn't hold a candle to how brutal the fighting was.

Clearing her thoughts, Kasumi searched out with her senses to find the chakra signature of her sister at the very least, using her sensory ability that she had almost completely forgotten about. Now that she remembered it though, she remembered that her Chakra sensory was sensitive enough that she could pinpoint an ally from miles away, which is why when she found the signature that she was looking for, she turned towards Minato and told him that she knew where they were.

The blonde boy, who trusted Kasumi enough to not lead him astray, was surprised by that. He had no indication that she could pinpoint locations of enemies by whatever means she used. She hadn't lead him astray yet though, so he would take whatever Kasumi was doing in stride so that he could save Kushina, and get her home.

The two continued to run for a few hundred feet, before Kasumi stopped and made a shadow clone to go with Minato, while she told him that she was going to be making something to help distract the Kumo nin. She didn't want him to waste time worrying about her, and instead he wanted the blonde boy to go and save her sister. He could worry about her later.

Staying for a couple of seconds, Minato just nodded, and went forwards, Kasumi's clone following not to far behind, while the original sat down and started to work on a seal that could help make sure that they could get away if needed.

The seal, in essence, was almost like a moving barrier seal, something that would be extremely useful all things considered, as even if it was weaker, it could help save lives when you had to retreat. She had managed to start on is seal, with Mito's notes as this was her idea, but it wasn't until team placements that she managed to finish it, and since she never had anyone to tell about it to.

The shielding would always be weaker then a planted barrier seal, one with a point of origin that stayed put. The grounded barrier seals tended to be strong enough to hold back a Bijudama, if what Mito's research notes said were true. With this in mind, she had tried to create a moving barrier seal with enough reinforcement to at the very least, keep a few Shinobi from dying while on the retreat. The biggest problem was that it would be difficult to make, with a three hour production time for one.

It was a really good thing that she had one that was almost made already with her, otherwise she wouldn't be able to make it, and help Minato.

With a nod, Kasumi sealed up her ink, and rolled up the rest of her blank Tate's back into a scroll, while she started to head towards Minato, the seal in hand as a precaution. She didn't know what rank the Kumo Nin had, but if it was anything higher then Chunin, then there was little to none that either one of them could do. It didn't matter what their unofficial ranking was.

Before she could get there, however, she stopped when the familiar feeling of a shadow clones memories came back to her. Kasumi stood there for a few seconds processing the clones memories, before she let out a sigh, and an amused shake of her head. It seems that blonde did manage to save Kushina by his lonesome, but now, Kasumi was just standing to the side, listening to what the two were saying to each other.

"Are you hurt? I came to save you." The blonde boy wonder simply said, though you could tell there was an edge of relief in his voice that Kushina was alright.

Kushina slowly looked up, but when she saw the familiar head of blonde, she let out a relieved look of her own, before she started to fall forwards. It seemed that the shock of he situation had finally settled in to where she just collapsed, but before could hit the ground, Minato rushed forwards and caught her.

With a soft, closed eye smile, Minato said "You'll be alright now."

Before Kushina could say anything, however, Minato started to pick Kushina up in a princess style hold. The redhead in his arms, gave a startled sound, as she said "Wait a minute!"

Minato just gave her another smile, as he jumped up into the air, and onto a tree. Kasumi, who had sealed up the Kumo nin using an ANBU assassination scroll that she had 'Commandeered' from Mito's storage room, even if she didn't know why it was there, followed quickly behind, as Minato stopped at the top of a tree.

On top of the tree, however, Kushina noticed something in Minato's hand that looked very familiar. With the surprise evident in her voice, she quietly said "That's..."

Minato gave a smile towards Kushina as he said "Your hair is beautiful, so I noticed it right away."

Kushina looked at the blonde in surprise once again, before she looked away and said "But you've always ignored me..."

The blonde boy didn't even have to look to towards her while he said "It was because I know your strong, in body and spirit... But this is a fight between two villages. It's different then your other fights so..."

Kushina gave him a slightly indignant look, as she asked "So?"

Turning towards her with a smile, Minato said "I didn't want to lose you."

The indignant look, turned to surprise, before it quickly morphed back into a worried look as she asked "Even if I'm an outsider?"

Minato gave her a slight questioning look, as he asked "What makes you say that? You live in Konohagakure so you're one of us."

The blonde boy ended up giving Kushina another soft smile in the process, while she looked away slightly in embarrassment. The whole while, Kasumi was smiling in amusement at the sweet, and 'Fluffy' moment between her sister and the blonde boy who she was sure would marry said sister. It was so sweet, it almost made the Manjū loving girl queasy, but more in the sense of how overly sweet it was, not that it was sweet in general.

Giving another sigh, Kasumi sent a shadow clone home to make sure that Kushina didn't worry, while she steeled herself and started to head towards Konoha as well, but instead she was headed towards the Hokage tower. She was going to hand over the scrolls that the Kumo nin were in as a way for this war to end faster. It wouldn't do much, that much she knew, as Kumo nin hardly ever broke under interrogation tactics, but if they managed to get anything out of the enemy, then they could very well gain Intel to end this war a hell of a lot faster then they would via normal means.

Continuing forward, undeterred by the looks sent her way by the few and between civilians, and the wayward Konoha nin, or ANBU that she passed by, she walked into the Hokage tower, almost expecting the Sandaime to be home by now. Instead, she found the older man sitting behind a desk with a small pile of paper on it as well. Looking up from said pile, Sarutobi Hiruzen sent a small smile towards the Uzumaki.

"Ah, Kasumi-san. What can I do for you at this time of night?" Hiruzen asked, though there was a tired tone to his voice.

Kasumi bowed slightly to him, gaining an amused chuckle, while her expression stayed serious "Hokage-sama, I'm here to report tonight's crisis has been averted. Namikaze Minato saved Uzumaki Kushina from three Chunin level Kumo nin. I have all three in ANBU assassination scrolls that I found In Uzumaki Mito's storage room, ready for T&amp;I."

Hiruzen's soft look turned serious, as he nodded in understanding "Neko. Please take the scrolls from Uzumaki-San, and bring them to T&amp;I. I want out best interrogators to coax the enemy into giving us information."

The ANBU with the cat mask, who appeared out of nowhere, gave a simple, and soundless nod, before taking the scrolls from the Uzumaki. The second the ANBU left the room, Hiruzen turned back towards Kasumi "I am to assume you assisted Namikaze-San in retrieving Kushina-San as well?"

Kasumi gave a nod "Through means of Sensory, to which I have hidden for reason I shall not divulge, I located Uzumaki Kushina and assisted Namikaze Minato in retrieving and returning her. I did not, however, engage the enemy, as Namikaze-San had already taken care of the Chunin. I did nothing to contribute to the actual fight."

The main reason that Kasumi was even talking about that little bit of information was because they were at war. That simple fact meant that the Hokage could promote someone anytime he so wished, so long as he believed that the Shinobi, or Kunoichi, met the criteria for the promotion. She didn't want the promotion yet, and it was exceedingly obvious by the way she made everything that Minato did known, while trying to show that what she did was minuscule and insignificant. In the end, she knew that it was Hiruzen's choice as to if she was promoted, but she didn't want to be promoted, just to do something that would break her team apart.

They had only been a team for little more then a day. Not to mention she had only been a Genin for little more then a week, and the Hokage were already debating to promote her.

Hiruzen gave a hum of Acknowledgment, to where he said "I understand. However, due to the circumstances, I have no choice but to bestow upon both you and Namikaze-San thr Rank of Chunin. Your regulation vest will arrive at your home within the next two days."

Kasumi grimaced slightly at that, but she nodded none the less. She expected this, and she even knew she would be a Chunin faster the Kushina, mainly due to how she thought and all that. Kushina could become a jõnin easily, but she needed to think about what it took to become one before she could really become Jõnin rank.

Turning away from the Hokage, Kasumi started to head towards home, expecting Kushina to be upset about her little sister becoming a Chunin before she did, though the fact that a certain blonde became a Chunin as well, was enough to cause the older redhead to get angry. Or maybe she would be happy. Who knows what she would be like at this point.

Before she could completely run off, however, Kasumi spotted a couple of small kids sneaking towards a food stand, a hungry look in their eyes. It was obvious what was going on, and it angered Kasumi. Even here in Konoha, orphans were not getting enough food.

Stiffening her posture, she walked towards the food stand before the kids could make a grab from anything, and she set down 12,000 Ryo. The food stand owner looked with wide eyes at the red head in front of him, though they widened even more when he noticed the headband that showed she was a Kunoichi.

Gulping audibly, the stand owner hesitantly asked "W-what can I do for you Kunoichi-San?"

Kasumi gave him an unamused look, as she turned her head towards the kids "You three. Grab whatever you want so long as it doesn't go over the amount I have here."

The three kids, two boys and a girl, all three covered in dirt and grim to the point she could only tell their eye colors, stared at her in surprise. The girl, who had silver-ish eyes and couldn't have been older then 4, was the first to speak, as she asked "Why?"

Kasumi sent the three a soft look, as she next down, making sure to keep the Ryo in sight as well as she ruffled her head, revealing slightly Auburn hair "Because I know what it's like to have nothing. Now, come on, get something to eat. It's on me."

The two boys were a little hesitant still, but the girl, who quickly rushed forward and pointed out a couple of things she wanted. Eventually the boys broke down as well, and decided to get something, to which Kasumi sent a scolding look towards the shop keeper. It was obvious that the three children had tried to take something from the shop keeper once before, or they had asked for something to eat, and said shop keeper ran the children off without so much as a remorseful look.

When the three got what they wanted, Kasumi lead them to a park, and sat down on a bench. The two boys sitting on one side, while Kasumi had the silver eyed girl in her lap. The whole time they were eating, Kasumi was telling stories about the pranks that Kushina had pulled on her classmates, which in turn caused the three kids to break into laughter.

Kasumi eventually set the smallest girl down onto the ground, as she stood and stretched. When she finished, she knelt down to the kids and asked "Do you three have anywhere to go?"

The boy on the right of the girl, and the tallest boy who had mud colored eyes, shook his head "We got no place to go."

Kasumi gave a sad smile towards the kids, before an idea popped into her head "How about you come home with me? I live with just my sister, and there's plenty of room. So how 'bout it?"

The little girl seemed ready to agree to that right away, but it was the last boy who stopped her. The last one was slightly taller then the girl, but shorter then the brown eyed boy, and his eyes were a pail blue color. His eyes stared at Kasumi with distrust, as he asked "Why are you so nice to us? Were Orphans! You have reason to!"

Kasumi's Violet eyes lit with anger, but it wasn't at the kids. Instead it was at whoever had caused these three kids to be so distrustful. Claiming the fire in her eyes, Kasumi said "I understand what you three are going through. I'm a clan kid, but me and my sister are the last of our clan. We have no one but ourselves, and even our parents died. We understand what it's like to lose what's important to us. So will you please consider this?"

Three pairs of wide eyes looked back towards Kasumi as she walked to the bench and sat down. It was far enough away that they would be able to whisper about what they were going to do, but close enough that Kasumi could see them. The first to say anything, was the girl as she hissed out "Why were you so mean to her? She's actually nice to us!"

The blue eyed boy snorted "What about the caretaker huh? She was nice to us, now look at what happened."

"That's different!" The girl hissed out.

"Can we just think about this? Please?" The brown eyed boy asked, a nervous tone to his voice "You two are always getting fights with each other."

The blue eyed boy sent a look towards the brown eyed one "Don't tell me you agree with her! That red head is a Kunoichi! She could be trying to trick us!"

The silver eyed girl let out growl as she said "So what?! She can't be older then 10!"

The brown eyed boy gave a small sigh, as he said "How about we ask her instead of trying to fight each other for something so trivial?"

Both the boy and the girl looked at each other, before they nodded and turned towards Kasumi, who had started to dip her head due to tiredness. Her eyes snapped open, however, when she heard the rustling of the grass showing that the children were walking towards her. Looking up at that, she gave them an honest, smile and asked "So have you three decided yet?"

The brown eyed boy shook his head "Not yet. We wanna ask you some questions first."

"Fire away." Kasumi stated, undeterred by this.

The blue eyed boy narrowed his eyes at the red head, before asking "Why do you have such vivid red hair?"

Kasumi was slightly startled by that question, but none the less, she laughed, and answered "My red hair is a trademark of the Uzumaki clan. My clan was known for its sealing abilities, and energy in general."

The smaller girl jumped in place a bit due to excitement, as she asked "Are you really a Kunoichi? Cuz you don't seem like a Kunoichi, not that you aren't pretty, though not all Kunoichi have to be pretty, but-"

The brown eyed boy quickly put a hand over the girls mouth, stopping the mini rant allowing Kasumi to say "Uh... Yeah, I'm a Kunoichi. To be specific, I'm Chunin rank, which is the same rank all the academy teachers are."

The three looked at her in surprise once again, but she just waved them off, an amused look on her face, as the brown eyed boy asked "Since you explained why your helping us, why go through all the trouble and spend so much on kids you barely know?"

"I think I explained that already." Kasumi said with an amused look "but I understand. I'm a Kunoichi, it's fine to not trust me. I just really want to help you as all."

The blue eyed boy turned toward his friends, both of which were looking at him, the girl with a pleading look, and the boy wi a raised eyebrow. With a deep sigh, the blue eyed boy conceded and said "Fine, Fine! We'll stay with the redhead. Are you happy now?"

The silver eyed girl cheered loudly at that, as Che all but charged at Kasumi, who caught the girl. Laughing slightly, Kasumi turned towards the blue eyed boy, and said "Thank you. My name's Kasumi by the way. Do you three have names?"

The blue eyed boy gave a sour look towards Kasumi, but the brown eyed boy shook his head "No. We never really had the chance."

"Hm... How 'bout we get you cleaned up before anything else." Kasumi suggested "No sense in trying to give you a name when I can't even see what you look like."

The blue eye bored made to protest, but in e end he was dragged into the Hot springs that the Senju compound had. It was just the four of them, but the boys, who had been living on the street, were blushing, as they saw Kasumi's developing figure. It was more in the sense that she was getting female curves then anything, but it was still enough to cause the boys to blush.

As it turned out, the brown eyed boy had blue hair of all things, though it was almost black with how dark it was, and he seemed to have more of a square jaw then the other boy. He looked like he would be more heavy-set when he grew up, so that meant he could do heavy work, or if he became a Shinobi, to which she would not force onto anyone, a tank like Shinobi who could take hits and deal them out just as much.

The other boy had white hair of all things, which surprisingly went with how pale his blue eyes were, but his thin jaw line showed that he was going to be more lithe when it came to his body type. His type were more meant for spead then anything, and he would probably be a good chief if nothing else, as nimble fingers would be good for that type of thing. Either way, the boy still had a scowl on his face when it came to staring at Kasumi and she just ignored it in favor of helping the girl that was in front of her.

The girl had slightly darker Aburn hair then she thought at first, but that didn't really man much in the grand scheme of things. It did show however that she was going to be a so called knock out when she finally grew up all the way. She had a thinner cram the the boys, which was to be expected in this case, but she didn't have as much fat in turn. In all she seemed to be the best in terms of how her body would work when it came to working as a Shinobi. Her frame was meant for things like flexibility, and then speed as well, which just showed that while Kasumi wouldn't force the kids into the job, she knew what she was going to do if they ever became Shinobi, and she was going to help them in any way she could as well.

With that out of the way, Kasumi said "Alright, now that we have time, lets see about getting you three some names, ne? I was thinking somthing along the lines of Akira for blues eyes over there."

Kasumi gave a grin towards the scowling boy, but she could see a hint of appreciation in his eyes. With the scowl lightening up a bit, the boy raised an eyebrow "Clear and intelligent?"

Kasumi gave an unapologetic look, as she said "You have clear white hair, and blue eyes. Your also intelligent, so why not?"

The newly named Akira just gave a nod in response. It didn't matter to him if it was name given to him by someone he didn't know. He wouldn't admit it, but he was happy to have a name in general.

Kasumi then turned towards the brown eyed boy, with a thoughtful look before she snapped her fingers and pointed at him "Kousuke. Clear bay seems to suit you."

The boy gave a thoughtful look for a second, before he gave a grin and a nod "Hai. I like the name. Kousuke... Has a nice ring to it."

"Now you..." Kasumi said with a small smile towards the silver eyed girl, before a smirk appeared "how about Yoshiko, child of Joy? The name suits you."

Yoshino gave a cheer of agreement, and it made Kasumi absentmindedly realize that she and Kushina would get along greatly. With a shake of her head, she finished helping Yoshiko with getting dry, while Akira and Kosuke finished getting clean as well. When they got out, Kasumi saw the sorry state the children's clothes where, and she sighed, while giving them something that was to big for them for now.

Tomorrow they were going to have to get some new clothes for the children.

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**Well, that's that. Another chapter down, and I can honestly say that I'm happy with this one. More then four thousand words, and that's not including all the stuff at the beginning and the end. So I am happy to say that I am happy with this, even if that sentence was redundant.**

**Ok, I'm still looking for a person who would like to do the 'Reading of' thing if possible. I'm interested to see where it goes.**

**Questions:**

**Did the explanation of Konoha's strength make sense?**

**What did you think of the Mobile barrier seal idea?**

**Did you like the fluff I put in here between Kushina and Minato?**

**Did the reason for promotion make sense?**

**Can you say you forgot about Kasumi's sensory abilities?**

**What did you think of Kasumi helping those kids?**

**Did you like the three kids?**

**Did you like the names Kasumi gave the three?**

**That's it, so I hope to hear from you guys soon, Please Review!**


	13. A normal day

**Hello again. Right here we have chapter 13, which i've been mulling over to make sure that it was fine when it came to grammar and such. I've noticed a lot of errors in the last couple of chapters as I went over them, so I'm trying to keep it the errors down to a minimum as much as I can. With that said, let me just say that i'm getting annoyed at the lack of notice towards the 'Reading of' Thing I was suggesting. If you don't think it's a good idea, say so! Its annoying when I hear nothing from people about that, so If you would at least say something about it, I wouldn't get nearly annoyed.**

**Now that I've gotten that out of the way, let's get to the reviews.**

**InazumaSenshi: Um, ok? I really don't understand what you mean by 'What a nice heart there' but thanks? Really, I don't know what you mean by that.**

**Goldspark: Ok, glad you like the kids, and maybe you could answer the rest of the questions next time? On to the other thing though, No i'm not going to skip that far, I have a lot of things planned when it comes to this story, and I'm actually planning things out so that the sequel to this will be the normal cannon timeline. In other words, this story is going to end a bit before the Kyuubi attack, and the sequel will start during the Kyuubi attack. If that annoys you, i'm sorry, but that's just how I have things planned.**

**Thats that! Now to disclaimer.**

**disclaimer: I own nothing except non annoy'n characters and situations.**

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The next day was interesting enough to the trio of kids. Yoshiko was as excited as always, but Kousuke and Akira we less so. Both of the boys knew that Kasumi only meant well at this point, but there was the simple fact of what happened when they found her sprawled across her bed the next morning, refusing to get up.

"Kasumi-chan~!" Yoshiko whined "We're hungry~!"

Kasumi stubbornly stayed exactly where she was, trying to squeeze as much sleep as she could in before she had to get up. Off day or not, she was not willing to get out of bed if she didn't have to!

Akira gave a sigh towards his friend, as he said "Come on Yoshiko. We can make something ourselves."

Kousuke gave a laugh towards that "Yeah? And which of us three actually knows how to cook? You don't, and I sure as heck can't either. We all know how Yoshiko did the last time she tried to cook!"

"Hey! I wasn't that bad!" Said Auburn haired girl stated with a scowl, and her arms crossed, though it ended up looking more like a pout then a scowl.

Akira raised a white eyebrow "Would you like to cook and find out what would happen if Kasumi-san found out we burnt the kitchen down?"

Yoshiko let out another growl, but she didn't say anything. It didn't matter how nice Kasumi was, Yoshiko knew that bigger kids had a mean streak towards smaller kids who messed with their stuff. Happened in the orphanage all the time, but even then, the caretaker tended to keep everyone out of fights. Most of the time they didn't watch the kids, as they had 'personal' things to do, as they told the children. The trio wasn't stupid. They knew what the two caretakers did in the orphanage's office.

A groan from Kasumi was what caught the children's attention once again, as Kasumi, who's red hair covered her left eye, looked towards the trio with a half awake eye. Blinking a few times, the red-head yawned loudly, and asked "What are you three doing in my room? It's not even 8:00 yet."

Yoshiko gave an energetic cheer as she said "Sorry Kasumi-chan, but we wanted something to eat, but then you wouldn't wake up, so we stayed in here until you did wake up, but then we got into an argument, and then we didn't realize the time, but we did figure out what exactly we do want to eat, but we didn't all agree at first, and here we are."

The girl spoke in a rapid fire type way, and Kasumi blinked a bit, processing the words. With a small sigh, Kasumi dragged herself out of bed, her shoulder blade length red hair sticking up at odd angles due to bed head. Continuing onward, ignoring the Brats that were trying not to laugh at her, she walked into the kitchen and started to make some eggs and bacon.

"You three are lucky I'm in a good mood right now. Normally I'd be biting your heads off for waking me up." Kasumi stated towards the three kids who had taken a seat at the table that could fit close to twenty.

It wasn't like Kushina or Kasumi were expecting anyone else to live with them in the Senju compound, but this was just how things were. It didn't matter how big the area was, so long as the place had her sister, the youngest Uzumaki didn't care if the house was a small shack.

"If this is you in a good mood, I'd hate see you in a bad mood." Akira stated, a smug look on his face.

Kasumi gave a level look towards the white haired boy "Ha. Ha. Funny kid. Now don't push your luck, or your cooking your own food."

Akira wisely shut up at that, to which Yoshiko and Kousuke sent him teasing looks. The boy simply scowled back at them, but his attention was brought away from them when a door opened to show a girl that looked close to Kasumi, except she had waist length red hair. The boy stared at the girl, and she looked right back for a few seconds, before Yoshiko and Kushina, who had walked in, jumped and pointed at each other.

"Who're you?!" They both yelled at the same time, before they paused "I asked you first! No you didn't, I did! Quit copying me Kuroshi/Dattebane! Even the verbal tick?! Knock it off Kuroshi/Dattebane!"

Kasumi gave a blank look towards her sister and the four year old girl that we're arguing. Turning towards Kosuke and Akira, she slowly asked "Is she always like that?"

Kosuke gave a nod "Yeah. Yoshiko-san has always been that hyper, we would have ended up calling her Kuroshi eventually if it wasn't for you naming us."

Akira gave a hmm if agreement "She's really going at it with her. Speaking of which, who is she Kasumi-san?"

"My older sister Kushina." Kasumi stated simply, running a hand through her partially standing hair, before she turned back to breakfast "I figured those two would be similar, why do you think I wasn't so shocked about how Yoshiko was acting?"

Kosuke and Akira looked at each other for a few seconds, before the brown eyed boy gave a small laugh "Yeah, that was a bit surprising. When we first met her, we were startled by how fast she could talk."

Kasumi gave a yawn, and a nod in response, before she set a plate of bacon and eggs on the table, turning towards the four year old that was still fighting with the 12 year old "Oi! You two! Get over here, or you're getting nothing, and you'll have to make your own food!"

Yoshiko was gone in a fast, but Kushina was close behind. Kushina was a good cook in her own right, but Kasumi paid more attention in the cooking classes with Mito then she did, so the food that Kasumi did was a lot better then hers, not to say that her food was nasty. It was the complete opposite in fact. Kushina was a really good cook, it was just that, like stated before, Kasumi paid more attention to the cooking classes that Mito gave them.

With a quick grab of a plate, and some food, both Yoshiko and Kushina took a bit at the same time, freezing. Their faces quickly changed from one of panic, to one of absolute bliss from the single bite they took. The boys, who were curious as to the taste as well, took a bit, and the exact same thing happened to them. Kasumi, on the other hand, just took a bit of her food, a small smirk on her face as she nodded in happiness for the taste.

"Could have used a bit more paprika and maybe some pepper, but it's good." Kasumi simply stated as she continued to eat, not noticing the wide eyed looks from the three kids, and her sister.

The rest of the meal was quiet, but once it finished, Kasumi immediately dragged the three kids with her to get them some real clothes. The boys protested, but in the end she won, as Kushina decided to head with them, little Yoshiko sitting on her shoulders.

The boys were the first ones to get clothes, as she got them haircuts as well. With Kosuke his blue hair was put into an almost military like look, though it was a bit longer then normal when it came to a military haircut. Clothes wise he got a simply black T-shirt, along with some brown leather bracelets. To add to this he had a pair of cream colored shorts that ended just below his knees. Add this with a pair of Shinobi sandals, as Kasumi proved to them that they were more comfortable than shoes with the open toes, he looked almost like a mini academy student.

Akira was harder to get things for, as his hair was cut short, but it was still longer than most boys, and it was strewn around no matter what the hair stylist did. With a long-sleeved, dark blue, shirt and a pair of black pants that ended a few inches above his ankles, along with black sandals, the boy was scowling towards Kasumi.

Finally was Yoshiko, who had her auburn hair put into a ponytail, with it being shortened until it ended between her shoulder blades. Due to the girl being stubborn, she had a white spaghetti strap Tank-top, though Kasumi made her wear a cream colored sweatshirt over it, even if it was open to show the tank top. She had a pair of dark blue shorts that ended just above her knees as well, with a pair of blue sandals.

Kasumi, who had been wearing something similar, even if it was bigger, than what she had when she first started the academy, decided to get a change as well. To replace the dark scene she had before, she had a dark green T-shirt on, along with her Chunin best, to which she had received in the mail of all things, along with her Headband being hanging from her neck. She wore a place pair of pants that ended below her knees, with her weapon pouch, and bandages for safety on her right thigh. To top it off, she had black Shinobi sandals on, though they were cut short so they ended at the ankle instead of farther up the leg.

Akira stared at Kasumi with his scowl for a bit longer, before he said "Hōka ma!"

Kasumi raised an eyebrow at that "Hōka ma? How am I a firebug? If anything I'd be Mizu ma, a water bug."

"I think he's talking about your hair Kasumi." Kosuke stated while rolling his eyes.

The red headed girl gave a hum of understanding as she turned towards the boy "Where did that come from anyway?"

Akira's scowl deepened as he said "I was trying to think of a name for you. I'm calling you Hōka ma from now on!"

"I have a name you know." Kasumi stated with a strained smile, though the boy just shook his head.

"Doesn't matter. Your Hōka ma to me from now on. Akai Atama no Hōka ma." Akira stated with a stubborn look.

The red headed firebug just gave a small groan in response, but she relented. The kid would lose the nickname for her eventually, but that would probably be awhile as it was. The fact that he was four did nothing to deter her hopeful thoughts. She really didn't want to be stuck with that name when she got her own enter in the bingo books. It didn't matter if it tricked people into thinking that her skills were fire based, she did not want to deal with such a childish nickname. Then again, it could work with her when she finished up her modified explosive seal, but that was a thought for another time.

Returning to the Senju compound, Kasumi was a bit surprised to see a drunk Tsunade sleeping on the couch. Blinking a couple of times, Kasumi gave a sigh, as she turned towards the kids behind her, Kushina already leaving to get an ice pack that was not meant for the older woman "You three stay where you are, do not under any circumstances get closer than fifteen feet of her while she's still asleep."

The three gave confused looks, but none the less nodded in understanding. What happened next, however surprised all fee kids, while also sending chills down their spines.

Kasumi slowly walked up to Tsunade and poked her in the cheek. When nothing happened, except for the Sannin sleeping still, Kasumi sighed nice again, and poked her in the shoulder a couple of times, adding in a bit of force, but still nothing happened. Shaking her head, Kasumi turned and saw Kushina with the ice pack in hand, so with no regrets Kasumi poked the sleeping medic in the chest.

Honey brown eyes snapped open in an instant, while a fist was sent flying towards Kasumi, a yell of "JIRAIYA!" Being heard as the fist flew.

Kasumi, to her immense luck, managed to not take a full punch on the chest. No, instead she got hit enough that she was sent backwards, and through the door to the backyard. The red head bounced a couple of times, before she slid on the ground, a groan coming from the girl, but a thumbs up appearing as well.

Kasumi lifted her head up just enough to see the shock in Tsunade's eyes, and a look amusement from Kushina. With a frown, Kasumi said "Your waking her up next time Kushina." Before she let her head fall once again.

That knocked the smug look on her face off real quick. Tsunade was not someone you messed with, unless you were willing to take a lot of damage. The only upside to her attacking you, was that your pain tolerance grew as well, and that want much of a trade when it came down to it. Tsunade's punches were enough to break bones easily, and the fact that she got hit by a glance, and was sent flying, just showed how much strength through Chakra control the buxom woman had.

Said bleary eyed woman, Blinked a couple of times in her groggy state, before she saw the head of red hair that was lying in the dirt, instead of a head of white that she had expected. Blinking the rest of the sleep out of her eyes, Tsunade gave a wide eyed look at the fact that she punched one of her students, to the point she shot up from her 'Bed' and rushed towards Kasumi, her hands already glowing green.

Behind them, Yoshiko, Kosuke and Akira still had wide eyed looks at the damage a Tsunade strength punch managed to do. They had heard stories about how strong the Sannin were, but if the woman could send Kasumi flying backwards a good fifty feet, then the other two must be just as ridiculous in one way or another.

"Guess I didn't need the ice pack." Kushina stated, making the three jump as they forgot about her, and she walked away to put the ice pack back where it was before.

A few minutes later, the three kids, The two sisters, and the Buxom Sensei of two of them, were sitting at a table with varied expressions. Kosuke had a nervous look as Kasumi and Tsunade looked towards each other, both with flowers. Akira had an indifferent look, which made him look like he was sleeping with his eyes open, even if it was impossible due to Yoshiko's energy abundant rant on how cool Tsunade was.

"I'm not saying sorry." A certain blonde stated with a scowl.

"I don't expect you to. What I do expect you to do is act your age." A certain red head stated, Violet eyes staring with almost a fire behind them.

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

"That you're acting like a four year old, and the three in this room are more mature than you!"

"Well excuse me princess, I'm upset that you didn't tell me you became a Chunin!"

"Oh, so it's my fault is it Dattebate?!"

"Yeah! I'm your Sensei, I need to know these this!"

"It's not my fault the Sandaime promoted me, take it up with him!"

"You could have waited! You've only been a genin for a week at most!"

"I tried to refuse! He wouldn't take no for an answer Dattebate!"

The yelling match continued on from here to the point that Kushina had enough time to go get Mikoto, who had been having lunch at the time, to come and help break them apart. In the end it took the combined force of Kushina, Mikoto, and the three four year olds to break the two apart and actually get them to calm down. Even then, however, the two were glaring at each other no matter the distance between them. All it did was make everyone between them nervous.

Kushina, deciding to break the ice, hesitantly said "Sensei, could we take a mission? With Kasumi a Chunin, we could take a C-rank couldn't we?"

Tsunade snapped her gaze from Kasumi, onto Kushina, though it wasn't a glare anymore "I don't see why we couldn't. You three proved that your friends as it is, so teamwork isn't a problem I bet. How's this, you three get things ready tonight, and I'll grab the mission next thing in the morning."

Kushina let out a barely audible sigh of relief when she saw her sister perk up a bit "That'd be more then fine Sensei. We can get ready as soon as possible."

Mikoto gave a quick nod in agreement "Tou-san will be happy to hear that I am already going on a C-rank, so there is no problem there. Stupid Uchiha pride aside, I'm happy that we can start a mission soon as well."

Kasumi gave a hum in agreement, but she didn't say much else. It did make sense that ad-ranks were not given out as much, they were at war after all, but the fact that for their first mission, they were going on a C-rank? Most people would think that the Sensei was overestimating their students, or they were underestimating the enemy. In this case it was neither, as all three could beat a low Chunin level opponent by themselves. All three of them were from clans after all, and that meant they got training in earlier on in life than most.

Tsunade gave a happy nod towards that, before she gave a deadpan look towards Kasumi "I've been meaning to ask, what's with the brats?"

Yoshiko growled at the word 'brat', as she jumped up, pointing her finger at the buxom woman "I'm not a brat Kuroshi!"

"A verbal tick as well?" Tsunade asked with a raised eyebrow "Jeez, if I didn't know any better, I would say you already had a kid Kasumi."

Said red head rolled her eyes, as she said "Whatever you say Obachan." A tick mark appeared on Tsunade's head from that, but Kasumi continued still "To get to the point, however, The three have names. White hair is Akira, brown eyes is Kosuke, and the girl is Yoshiko."

Tsunade walked up to the three four year olds, and gave them a curious look "What are you three doing here?"

Akira sent a scolding glare towards the woman in front of him, as he said "We're Orphans. Kasumi-san was nice enough to let us stay here for now."

"For now?" Kasumi asked with a raised eyebrow "I wouldn't care if you lived here with me. We have enough room, and I'm sure Kushina wouldn't mind so long as you guys didn't go through her stuff."

Kushina gave a grin, and a thumbs up in response "I don't mind at all actually, Dattebane!"

"Dattebane, Dattebate, what's next? Dattebayo? Dattebasa even?" Mikoto mumbled, but it was loud enough for everyone to hear, which caused Kasumi to give a sheepish look, and Kushina to huff, while crossing her arms.

"It's hereditary! I know you don't remember it Kasumi, but Mom Used to say 'Dattebana when she was excited." Kushina stated with a huff.

Tsunade let out a small laugh, as she said "Kami forbid you two have children. We'll have a bunch of kids running around saying there own version of 'Datte-something' at the top of their lungs."

Both Uzumaki gave blank looks towards the older woman, and in unison said "Ha, ha Obachan."

Mikoto shivered at that. With a shuddering exhale, the only Uchiha in the room said "Let's agree for you to to never speak in unison again."

In unison once again, the two asked "But why Mikoto-san?"

Said Uchiha shivered once again, before her angry gaze shifted towards them. Her Sharingan full blaze, with two Tomoe on one eye, and one on the other. With a. Loud cry, she started to chase the two sisters around the house, killing intent oozing off of the black haired girl.

Say what you will about Uchiha's, but when they get angry, you better run.

Omake: Datte Parade.

Tsunade was walking through Konoha, a specific destination in mind, but before she could get very far, she heard a whisper of 'Dattesayo' beside her. Turning her gaze towards whoever said it, she found no one. Shaking her head of any thoughts she had concerning the sound, she continued on her way.

"Hey! Watch where you're walking Dattekina!" A shopkeeper yelled, as three kids ran straight past the stall, almost knocking things down.

"Sorry!" One of them yelled "We're kinda late, so we need to hurry Datteryuka!"

Tsunade's left eye twitched at that, but she just continued on her way, ignoring the constant 'Datte' variations around her. She wasn't going to snap. This was just a hallucination. There was no way that so many people had verbal tics that began with Datte-

"-Yoku! I told you before not to do that!" An older woman stated with a scowl "I'll knock you over the head again if you try that one more time Datteyoku!"

"I said I was sorry Datteripo!" A younger boy stated, as he dodged a pot that was aimed at his head, via the old lady throwing it

Tsunade at this point was trying her best not to hit anything, but eventually she got a look at the people around her and saw red everywhere. With wide Eyes Tsunade ran as fast as she could so that she could get to where she was heading without hearing another word from the read heads. When she reached the hot springs, which was where she was heading, she froze as she saw the long line of redheads that were waiting at the Hot Springs.

With a gasp, Tsunade sat up in her bed as fast as she could, her chest heaving from heavy breathing. With a small shudder, Tsunade fell back asleep, not noticing the two sisters that were high fiving each other at a job well done. They were the reason for Tsunade's nightmare after all.

That'll show her not to make fun of their verbal tick.

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**So what did you guys think? Good bad? Come on, don't be shy to review!**

**Ok, getting to the next order of business, you may be surprised to see someone next chapter, that is if you remember some of the stuff that happened during the first few chapters. Seriously though, My hands write things out, so the surprise was to me as well. I completely forgot about said surprise until I wrote it out, so I hope you enjoy it, but onto the questions for this chapter.**

**What is you're opinion of Yoshiko?**

**What about Akira and Kosuke?**

**Did you find Yoshiko and Kushina's first interaction to be funny?**

**What did you think of the group's new outfits? (Kushina and Mikoto will be next chapter)**

**Did you find Akira's nickname for Kasumi to suit her?**

**What did you think of Tsunade's and Kasumi's fight?**

**What do you think the C-rank will be?**

**Well, thats all I got for you, so till next time.**


	14. The first mission

**Well, here we go with the next chapter, chapter fourteen! I know, I know, it's been awhile, but with my school being close to ending, I haven't had the time to write as much, so don't kill me. With that in mind, I don't have all the much to say, and I honestly didn't get a review last chapter... Can you guys Review this time? Pretty please?**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except for non-cannon events, and characters.**

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Kasumi let out a groan as she sat up in her bed, a bleary eyed look being shown as she looked around the room to see three certain children sleeping the bed with her. Silently yawning, Kasumi moved out of bed and started to get breakfast ready. She had already put some money aside for the children so they could get something to eat while she was gone, but just in case, she had it so that Shikaku would check on them every once in awhile to make sure they actually ate.

Speaking of the Nara, while the two hadn't seen each other on a while, they hadn't gotten distant. Instead, they both understood why they hadn't seen each other for so long, and accepted it even. Sure, Shikaku wasn't exactly happy with this, but he understood none the less. He understood that with the war, they wouldn't be able to actually talk, and meet with each other until both of their teams were Chunin rank so they didn't have to be stuck as a team any longer, not that they disliked their teammates. The simple fact of their teams being genin still, well Kasumi was Chunin but never mind, they wouldn't really have the time due to their Sensei trying to get them stronger.

The war was still in fool bloom, and even with this fact, Kiri had dropped out due to what was rumored as a civil threatening to break out. It didn't look like it would anytime soon, but it was enough to have Kiri drop out of the war for now. Most of the heads of the village were still suspicious of Kiri, but they wouldn't start anything so long as Kiri didn't start anything. The only thing Kasumi had to say about the whole situation was, annoying old coots had nothing better to do then scheme, and be suspicious of others.

Shaking her head, she began to cook breakfast for six people, beside herself of course. Mikoto, despite her protests, ended up staying the night along with Tsunade, who had her own house in the compound might she add, so there really was no reason for her not to cook breakfast for them. Well besides the fact that she liked to mess with people. Honestly, that wasn't a reason for her not to cook breakfast for the others, no matter how much she didn't want to.

Finishing up with the eggs, bacon, and toast, she set them on the table, not even bothering to comment on the people that were sitting at the table. Honestly, with the smell of the food spreading through the house, she shouldn't be all the surprised that they woke up. Bacon isn't exactly a subtle smell, and the house was made in a way that the smell spread everywhere around the house.

Giving a smile at the sleepy expressions everyone had, she sat down with her own plate, and began to eat at a slow pace compared to normal. Normally she ate at a Uzumaki-ish pace, but then again, even Kushina, who shoveled her food down, was eating slower. It seemed that the simple fact of this being a C-rank mission while Konoha was at war made them nervous. Even Kosuke, Akira, and Yoshiko were nervous, and they weren't going on the mission.

While Akira wouldn't admit it, Kasumi ended up being the big sister gift re he never had. It was the same for the other two, but the boy was just to stubborn to admit anything nice about Kasumi. If anyone where to ask him what he thought of her, his immediate response would be to say that she's an annoying red headed idiot, but he honestly would be happy about meeting her. The stubborn kid would just never admit it, which was something a lot of the people around him found annoying.

Kosuke, while being quieter then the other two, still enjoyed her company a lot as well. Kasumi was actually willing to take care of them, unlike the orphanage which had them fend for themselves mostly. That was part of the reason that they left in e first place, though the larger boy tended to be more on the quiet side due to having a more gentle and caring nature. It didn't matter either way, but Kosuke still really liked being around Kasumi.

Then here was Yoshiko. The hyper active ball of energy was extremely happy, and willing to admit it, that they had met Kasumi. Most people would ignore her, or outright tell her to shut up, but Kasumi didn't, and that right away, gave her props from the little girl. Kasumi was extremely nice all around, and she didn't yell at them, as far as she knew, when they woke her up so they could get something to eat. The mean adults in the orphanage were complete opposites to that, and it made Yoshiko even happier in terms of staying with the the logical red head.

"Well, we should be leaving soon. While I'm gone Akira is in charge, got it?" Kasumi asked, as she raised an eyebrow at the three children.

Akira was actually surprised that she would leave him in charge, but none the less he nodded. Kosuke had nothing to say in the matter either, that much was obvious, but Yoshiko whined loudly. With a thump, her head hit the table "Why does he have to be in charge? Couldn't have made it Kosuke instead?"

Kasumi sighed, as she ruffled the Auburn strands on the girls head "Like it or not, Akira is the most responsible out of you three. Responsibility is the reason why he's in charge. I didn't make it to Chunin because I was over powering despite just graduating. No, I became one due to thinking things out, and planning ahead to try and help as many people as possible in the situation."

Maybe it was the wrong situation, or the wrong scenario from what actually happened, but it got the point across. The three kids looked at Kasumi with slightly wide eyes, but Yoshiko gave a begrudging nod. She would listen to him, but she wouldn't like it. That actually put a smile to her face as well, though she stayed silent for a few minutes.

"I was planning on enrolling you three into the civilian academy. I have enough money to cover it and get you your supplies for classes if your willing." Kasumi stated, but she help up a hand quickly afterwards "I don't want you to decide right now. You have about a year before you can even enter school, so I don't want you to decide now."

Akira stared at Kasumi for a second, as he sent her a suspicious look. She seemed more willing to let them in the Civilian academy then the Ninja academy. For whatever reason, he actually felt upset about this, but she did say they had awhile to decide on if they wanted to go to the Civilian academy. She didn't say anything about them not going to the Ninja academy if they wanted to.

Say what you will, but Akira was definitely smart for his age.

He nodded in acceptance, but didn't say much more. Kasumi sighed a little at his lack of response, but she understood. He wasn't the type to give words without meaning, though she did wish he would talk more often. Here she was, going off onto a mission that she could end up dead from, and not even a word from Akira. Kosuke gave a brief wave, and Yoshiko jumped onto her for a hug, but Akira just stayed silent.

With one more Sigh, Kasumi turned towards the door, as her team had already left to get things ready as well, as she went on her way towards the village gates. It was where they were going to be meeting pretty soon, and Kasumi knew that this was going to be her first time out of the village since the attack on Uzushio. No matter what anyone would say, Uzumaki Kasumi longed for the smell of the salt water, and the sound of the waves. The heat of the sun bearing down on you while you sat on the beach...

Kasumi sighed in a melancholy like state at those thoughts, right as her team looked at her. Mikoto and Tsunade might have not understood why, but Kushina did as well. Neither of them told anyone else, but their rooms had a hint of salt air as a way to calm them down enough to sleep comfortably. The salt air reminded them enough of home that they could fall asleep, but not enough that they would get something akin to nightmares from it.

Kushina ended up joining in on the melancholy cloud that Kasumi had created, causing both Tsunade and Mikoto to sweat drop. Tsunade, who didn't know the two all that well, was the first to speak up as she asked "What's with you two?"

Kasumi snapped out of her melancholy state long enough to say "We wanna go to the beach..."

The answer was cryptic enough that both their Sensei, and teammate understood. They missed Uzushio. No matter what you did, there would always be a piece of your original home in you, and the Uzumaki always longed for the sea. If they encountered it even once, they always longed to go back. It was just in their blood to long for the sea. Almost like pirates when you think about it.

"Come on you two. We were heading to the land of waves anyway." Tsunade stated, and that right away made them perk up "We're going to meet a contact that says they could give us information on what Kirigakure is doing at the moment. The old coots are suspicious due to them dropping out of the war so early."

Kasumi and Kushina both were excited about going to an island, but they both knew that it would have to wait. They were going on a mission, and they had to be careful about everything. The mission could have been leaked, and some Kiri Shinobi, or even Shinobi from other villages they were at odds with, could try and kill them as a way to prevent the war from being won. That didn't even include the fact that there were three clan kids in the same squad with a Sannin.

In hindsight, butting this team together probably wasn't a good idea on Sandaime's part.

The three Kunoichi nodded towards Tsunade before they headed out. To say that they were in a heavily forested area, was like saying Uzushio was surrounded by whirlpools, but honestly, the forest was absolutely beautiful. It didn't hold the same beauty that Uzushio had, at least not to the Uzumaki's. But it still held a beauty that many wouldn't be able to see. They could see why the Shodai Hokage was such a loved person, not to mention that Mito had been his wife, so that actually gave even more props to him for being on the good side of the Uzumaki.

Kasumi and Kushina didn't know how long they ran, but by the time they stopped, the sun was a little in the west, which meant they ran from 9 in the morning, to almost 2. They hands stopped or eaten in that time, and no one complained. Uzumaki had extreme stamina reserves, while the Uchiha trained a lot to be able to have the stamina, and chakra reserves, to use their Katon jutsu before they graduate. Then there was Tsunade, who had Kage level reserves on both, to which she would have been able to continue longer,mid not for the Genin, and Chunin, she had with her.

"We'll stop here for now. You three, no matter what you say, are tired, and we all need to eat something." Tsunade stated, as the buxom woman sat down next to a tree.

Kushina and Mikoto were about to take out a ration bad, but before they could, Kasumi had pulled things out of a storage seal and handed them to her teammates and Sensei. What she handed them was a bento. It wouldn't have the best food she had made, but they would have the nutrients that they needed. Even Kasumk had one.

Seeing the stares from her teammates, Kasumi gave a weak smile, as she said "You need the nutrients. It won't taste as good as how I normally cook, but it has the nutrients needed to keep you full of energy."

Tsunade gave a laugh, along with saying "So your taking my lessons seriously. I thought that you wouldn't care all that much at first to be honest."

"I told you I wanted to be a Medic-nin, didn't I?" Kasumi asked, before broke into a grin and she decided to take a page out of Kushina's book "Besides, an Uzumaki never goes back on their word!"

The group of four broke into laughter at that, before they continued to eat their food. Kasumi was right that it wouldn't taste as good, but even so, Tsunade commented that it tasted a lot better then the ration bars that were normally given out by the Akamichi. They were a fairly new thing, so of course they hadn't perfected it yet, but, Kasumi had no illusion that she would be better then an Akamichi in terms of food taste and quality.

It just wasn't possible.

The second they finished with their food, Kasumi took the boxes and sealed them away once again, but not before going through hand seals and saying "Suuton: Kiri o Kuria(1)"

A fine mist spread out from Kasumi's lips, as it spread around the clearing. The smell of food that had lingered around, completely disappeared, leaving the sent of nature behind, but nothing else. With some stretching in terms of her fingers, as if had been awhile since she used Hand seals, she turned towards Tsunade who had a curious look on her face.

"Where did you learn that from?" The buxom woman asked, and she was really curious.

Kasumi flexed her fingers a few more times to get rid of some stiffness, before she said "Mito-Obachan had the Nidaime's stash of Suuton jutsu. There was also a lot of Fuuton from the Uzumaki part of the library, so me and Kushina know a lot of them, even if we don't use them all, or know how to effectively use them."

The buxom woman gave a small nod, and she was actually pretty happy as well. Kasumi, it seemed, had a major affinity for water, and a minor for Wind, as all Uzumaki had those two elements, while it was the other way for Kushina. Add that with the extreme offense of a fire user, and she had an effective team. The wind could put out the enemy's fire, while the same could boost the friendly fire attacks. At the same time, the fire user could overpower any wind user, while the water user hid them from attacks, or protected as well. She seemed to have lucked out with this team, and she wasn't complaining one bit.

The blonde gave a quick nod, before she snapped her head to the trees and threw a Kunai, just as another one appeared, sailing straight for Mikoto. The three genin reacted quickly, as they went into a triangle formation, their backs to their Sensei. Just in time as well, as three Iwa Shinobi jumped down into the small clearing they were resting is. From the looks of it, however, the group of four was the same in terms of ranks, mostly anyway.

The three Iwa genin sent glares of complete hatred towards the Uzumaki, which ment that someone in their family died during the Uzumaki raid, while the Jõnin held a calm look on his face, though there was a look of hatred in his eyes as well. Iwa seemed to hold a large grudge against Konoha, and the Uzumaki even more so.

Tsunade gave a calm look towards the Iwa Jõnin, before she said "Kasumi, Kushina, Mikoto. Be careful."

That was all she said, before she sent the Iwa jõnin flying backwards with a punch, and she chased after. Mikoto and Kushina went to the left and right respectively along with a Iwa genin each. That left Kasumi standing in front of a blonde boy. He had a blue eye, and his hair was put into a ponytail, but his eyes seemed to show how reckless he was as he didn't even seem concerned about the fact that she had a Chunin vest on.

"We don't have to fight you know." Kasumi stated, even though she unsealed her plain steel katana, not willing to use the one Mito gave her just yet.

"Just like a tree hugger. Always trying to talk your way out of a fight you can't win." The Iwa Shinobi stated, a condescending smirk on his face.

Kasumi didn't say anything, as she put her Katana's sheath into a loop on her side. Turning to the left just slightly as an explosion went off in Tsunade's direction, she continued "I do not wish to stain this blade with blood if not necessary. I am anything but weak."

The blonde growled at the reaction. He was hopping to get a rise out of the Konoha bitch. It didn't matter though, he was gonna guy her anyway.

In a blur, the blond disappeared, and reappeared aiming a Kunai at her jugular, only for it to be stopped due to the steel katana appearing in the Kunai's path. In a flash of red, the katana was sent at the blonde, only to be stopped as one of the blondes allies stopped it. In turn Mikoto appeared blocking the Kunai that was aimed at Kasumi's stomach.

The two Shinobi and two Kunoichi stayed still for a second, before they disengaged from each other Kushina appearing beside them as wall, though she was sporting a new cut on her right arm.

"Mikoto. Kushina." Kasumi simply stated as she looked towards them. The two girls in response just nodded, though Kushina had a grin. In a burst of movement the two teams charged at each other and started to attack each other in tandem. Kushina threw a couple of Kunai at one of the Iwa nin, just as Kasumi blocked an attack from behind. Mikoto helped protect them as well, by blocking the Kunai at the right of them, before they disappeared in a blur of black and red once again, to appear somewhere else in a similar position.

As Kasumi blocked a couple of Kunai once again, a burning pain went through her leg, as a Kunai hit it, but she grit her teeth to block a spine shot from another nin. To trade off, the blonde on the other team received a Kunai to the shoulder, thus making his right arm useless. Mikoto fixed a stab in the leg as well, while the other two Iwa nin were forced to pull senbon, somthing that Kushina had mixed In with her Kunai, from various places.

Jumping back, Kasumi went through handseals quickly as she yelled "Kushina, Mikoto! Suuton: Mizurappa!"

The three Iwa nin jumped back right as one of them finished with handseals, and yelled "Doton: Doryuheki!"

Kushina and Mikoto went through handseals quickly as they could, while Kasumi held out the water trumpet towards their mud wall. When they finished, the two yelled "Katon/Fuuton: Gokakyu/Daitoppa!"

The blast of wind and fire combined to completely over power Kasumi's water trumpet, to which she shut off the chakra powering it. The powerful fire that was sent forward completely surrounded the single earth wall, which, in turn caused screams to come from behind it. The three cringed at the smell of burning flesh, and they also cringed at the fact that they pretty much killed them, though it would be harder on Kushina and Mikoto. They were the ones to cause the fire, so they killed the Genin.

The three Kunoichi moved away from the burning bodies, and the second they were out of range, Kasumi fell to her knee's shiver just as the other two threw up in the bushes. The younger red head was trying her best to keep herself together while the other two were getting rid of their lunch in the bushes, but they just couldn't get rid of that image from their minds.

They didn't know how long they stayed there, but eventually Tsunade found them, and she had a grim look. She simply asked "Who did it?"

The two that launched the fire attack raised their hands, while Kasumi just stayed where she was. The Sannin sighed slightly at this, but she understood. With a softer look Tsuande said "I don't know if you want to talk about it now, or later, but we need to move. I understand that it was your first kill, but we can discuss this once we get to safety. That's all I can say for now."

Mikoto and Kushina gave a simple nod, before they unsteadily got to their feet. Kasumi stood as best she could as well, but her mind was racing the whole time she was following the others. She had two lives worth of experience at the moment. She shouldn't be affected by this by her thoughts, but she was. In a group effort they just killed three people, and she just froze up. She could have been killed at any point with that, but yet, she didn't do anything about it. She needed to get out of this thought process or she would end up dead for sure.

With a shiver, and a shake of her head she pressed onward until they reached the village. It wasn't al, that big, and the market place didn't have that many people, showing it honestly wasn't that big a place, but it was homely. The instant they smelled the sea though, Kushina and Kasumi gained wistful expressions. The smell of the salt in the air. The sound of the waves hitting the shore. It reminded them of home, and it didn't hurt to think of home for the first time in a long time.

The peaceful looks went away to determined ounces as both Kushina and Kasumi resolved to not let today's events affect either of them in the end. They both turned towards Tsunade and they were both about to say something, but in an instant Kasumi jumped on top of a passerby, and held a Kunai to said persons throat, just as Kushina got ready to attack as well.

Kasumi held the Kunai a bit tighter due to the amount of chakra that the person was giving, as she said "Move and I'll kill you."

The person, a girl to be exact, shifted a little, but didn't move otherwise "Sheesh. The annoying brat grew into a big Kunoichi. And here I was thinking you were gonna be my Kohai still."

Kasumi recoiled in shock at the voice, before she let the girl up, and stared in an extreme amount of surprise.

"Yoruichi-senpai?!"

* * *

**Cliffhanger!**

**Ok, I'm sorry for the cliffhanger, but as you read this, I'm working on the next chapter, so don't kill me ok? But, yeah, I hope you liked this chapter, and here are some questions.**

**What do you think Kirigakure is up to?**

**What do you think of the kids opinions of Kasumi?**

**Who do you think the 'Contact' will be, or what they will be like?**

**Did the fight seem realistic? Remember they are clan kids so they have an arsenal.**

**What do you think Kasumi will do to Yoruichi next chapter?**

**That's that, so till next time!**


End file.
